Truth Value and the thrashing folk indie accounting of "South County"

 

"Am I the one that greeted you when we were young / Getting tetanus shots / I hope not, cuz that would be awkward..."

"South County" by Gainesville, Florida based Truth Value is a special little ditty. It has a great roughness, is self aware and angst ridden with 90's college rock radio tones. Primary songwriter and lead vocalist Cooper reminds me of a collision of Adam Duritz (Counting Crows) and Jeff Rosenstock. There is a fervent sense and thrashing about quality like going for broke busker punk or flailing around when you're drowning and yet, there are also moments of folk indie elegance bathed in melancholia. 

The lyrics that seem (to me) to revolve around feeling stuck in a place you love but hate too. Hate in the way that you feel stuck in mud and feel like you may sink up to you neck in it. "South County" is full of the shit of youth or maybe just current times for anyone of any age. There are You Tube videos (like a lot of them) where the theme is the "death of the American dream" and other vids about how to drop out, how to find happiness by not trying to find this supposed American dream. For whatever reason I thought about those videos when I listened to this song a dozen times in a row.

"If you think you see a kid in a ditch / That's likely what you saw / And if you drive for about six more miles, you'll see / That's all I'll ever be"

I love the ending coda that feels exhausted and out of breath after an amped up dense musical passage that feels like an exasperated run for your life. 

Truth Value is Cooper (songwriter, vocalist, guitarist), Matt Joseph (guitar), Eddie Beck (drums) and Ryan Tribble  (bass). 

-Robb Donker Curtius

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

https://www.instagram.com/truthvaluefl/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/59wfHlHGQBchDpwFD6l4jP

https://music.apple.com/us/album/donation-drive-thru-single/1558954049

I'm Cooper. I've been playing guitar since I was 9, and I write the songs here. Soon after I started to play them live, I realized that I needed a band to really make em POP. So I made friends! Matt Joseph on second guitar, Eddie Beck on drums, and Ryan Tribble on bass. I'd say it's indie rock? with a bit of punk and folk? What do you think? I think it's cool at least. Well anyway, thank you for listening. I love you. I really do *heart hands*

We get by with a little help from our friends

 Truth Value, Gainesville, Florida, Indie Folk, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, "South County", folk punk, Cooper, singer songwriter,