The Random Hubiak Band - The Bleached Bones of Titans

The Random Hubiak Band

The Bleached Bones of Titans
​self-released; 2015

​3.6 out of 5

By William Morrow

When arriving upon The Random Hubiak’s Facebook page, I was greeted with a Jersey Shore fashioned (shirtless) video of the band’s lead singer Rand promoting his upcoming album The Bleached Bones of Titans. In said video, he attempted to persuade his listeners to support “innovative” and “independent” artists such as himself as opposed to artists like “Kanye West and Coldplay” who are apparently too caught up in corporate affairs to shell out creative music.

Considering West is universally renowned for fusing multiple genres of music whilst still maintaining a reputable hip-hop/rap career and Coldplay has been a top alternative band for several years, I expected The Random Hubiak’s music to really be something in its own world. With this being said, I found some of the tracks on the album to be derivative and not as innovative as I thought. However, throughout the album, the instrumentation was solid, the production was very professional and the band sounded very fluid. The vocals were always on pitch and I thought the glam-rock theme of the album to be very appropriate for what their music really is.

The album’s opener “Why Did You Leave Me Alone On Christmas” was a very run-of-the-mill Christmas tune, consisting of a ubiquitous four-chord progression with vocals coated with vibrato. Although there were not necessarily any problems with the music itself, the instrumentalists sounded bored, as if they were tired of playing the same four chords that they had been playing their entire lives. The added harmonies in the chorus served to be a distraction and made the texture sound muddy, as the lead vocal line is both sharp and a bit piercing. As for the lyrics, they are your average heartbreak Christmas song about unrequited love directed toward an anonymous female character.

The next tune titled “Affected Disaffection” reminded me a lot of if Geddy Lee were to meet a glam rock instrumental palette. The main riff of the song is very catchy, but I felt as if I had heard it before. Again, the music itself was very well executed, but 100 different people had done it all 100 times before. Although the performance and production proved to be solid, the structure and type of song that “Affected Disaffection” falls under is something that was popular thirty years ago.

I do have to say, Rand has a unique vocal style for the rock genre. He sounds as if he should be starring in a musical, and I think that a lot of the melodies he picks fall under that cloak, too. He really has a knack for adding a definitive feel to a song. In other words, The Random Hubiak definitely relies on their vocalist to carry its direction, considering a four-chord song can really go anywhere it needs to go. Rand changes keys well and has very solid pitch, but I think if he wants to stick with the rock genre that he should try to eliminate some of the added vibrato that proves to be overused throughout The Bleached Bones of Titans. His vocal range is definitely wide, although a lot of the time it sounded as if he were really attempting to imitate the likes of Elton John or Billy Joel.

Something that this band needs to work on is developing its own style a little more. When listening to the album, it is very apparent that they are all seasoned musicians who know the tricks of their trade, but they sound like they are trying to heavily associate themselves with a specific genre of music. These musicians definitely have what it takes, but in order to reach the success that I am sure they want to reach, they need to branch out and develop their own style that is unique to themselves.

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