Troubled Hubble - Making Beds In a Burning House

I’m sad to say that this is a posthumous review—Troubled Hubble met its demise earlier this year, with their final show on September 29th at the Chicago venue Schuba’s. Making Beds in a Burning House, unfortunately, is the last thing they’ll be remembered for, though it’s only a taste of what the band could have accomplished. Embarking on a musical pilgrimage that follows a road between those of No Knife and The Dismemberment Plan, Troubled Hubble was a force of quirky melodies, lyrics that could have been written in the bedroom of the average teenage-nobody, and an abundance of oddball hooks that would give Wayne Coyne something else to smile about. Chris Otepka paints an image of himself as a test-tube toting Darwin-ite—“I’m Pretty Sure I Can See Molecules,” with lines like “Chlorophyll and bits of rice/ice cold water and warmed up ice/fish eat plankton and plankton is/molecules as food for fish;” while far from typical, don’t feel out of place when backed by the grooves and chops from the other 75% of the quartet—the brothers Lanthum (Andrew on bass, Nate on drums) and Josh Miller on guitar. Otepka’s voice often seems self-contained, as though he could break out of this range if he cared to, but he doesn’t. “To Be Alive and Alone” finds him dwelling on the points in life when attempting a relationship becomes futile, as he tells us “We don't want love, we just want to be touched/Some just touch while others want love/Relationships are way too much/don't give me your heart because I've had enough,” and he does an “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”-type rant on “Ear Nose & Throat,” as he utilizes a variety of instruments/words/terms you can find in your doctor’s office for his prose. While it might not be the swan song fans had in mind, Making Beds in a Burning House won’t be viewed as a black spot on the band’s career—it’s solid and enjoyable, if not simply for Otepka’s science class nerd words—and as Troubled Hubble’s unplanned finale, this is what we’ve got left to remember them. [www.troubledhubble.com]