Reasons to be Emo #50 / Shotmaker-Maximillian Colby Split

(This special fiftieth post was originally going to be an unfinished essay on the parallels between Jawbreaker's 'Save Your Generation' and the teachings of Zen Buddhism. So consider yourself lucky!)

What this post is really about is an excellent record in the style that this blog (I guess) centres upon - mid-90's emo/hardcore. This is one of my top three favourite split releases, along with the 1998 Leatherface/Hot Water Music split and 2006's Ampere/Sinaloa (the latter can be found on Zen and the Art of Face Punching, and the former on this blog here... although the link is now down, I'd be happy to re-up it if anyone wants). Originally posted as an aside, I've made reference to it several times since, and now reckon the time has come to give it a post of its own.

Here's what I first wrote at the end of my Slint live review way back in August:

"...this 12'' record was released one year after Glenn/Rhoda, sits 3 CDs in front of Spiderland in my own collection, is deservedly one of Andy Radin's 'top emo records', and is an excellent split, combining two major bands with differing yet complementary styles, and indeed containing some of the best songs ever released by either group: the Shotmaker-Maximillian Colby split (as if this post needed any more Slint worship!)."

I have to admit, as I did then, that I don't own the actual release and just constructed it from the respective discographies. However, it's the music that matters most... I did find this originally on eBay, but Google searches today turned up nothing. A seller's picture from back then allowed me to make my own stab at the artwork (top), but if anyone has a photo or scan of the original, it would make a lovely post-Christmas present!

Shotmaker-Maximillian Colby combines the heavy, fraught and repetitive hardcore of the Ottawa, Canada band with the equally heavy but more Slinty and mathy sound of their American counterparts from Harrisonburg, Virginia. Both groups broke up within couple of years, leaving sizable (for the genre) discographies - Shotmaker's, two discs, Maximillian Colby, one - as well as leading on into further important hardcore groups Three Penny Opera and Sleepytime Trio, respectively. It's that loud-fast mixture of variety and single-mindedness which was, paradoxically, the style of emo:

"Another perfect split record that captures everything about its time. MaxCo combined the DC beauty and fury with a Slinty sense of when to shut the hell up and listen to pins dropping. Shotmaker played rocked-out emo like they were pissed as hell and wanted desperately to play fast but somehow couldn't"

(fourfa.com)

The Shotmaker side of the release begins with the pounding heaviness of 'The Game', rolling through their characteristic rumbling sound (until you get used to them, that's sometimes all you can hear in Shotmaker songs) and breakdowns into chugging, cyclical riffs that are almost metallic. Almost.

"and this ship must sink... and we must sink... this ship"

I'm assuming that's a commentary on capitalism. The style continues without much let-up for the next four songs; there's not much I can do to improve on Andy Radin's description, above. 'Blocks and Channels' starts off slow for about twenty seconds, and then launchs back into the spiralling, shouting hardcore of the preceding songs. As blend77 says:

"[Shotmaker] are also early progenitors of the current emo explosion, with their loud soft approach, complex guitar passages and screamy vocals. Though this is really just hardcore at its embroiled, impassioned best."

Shotmaker kind of follows the melody-through-chaos approach of other hardcore/emo bands- slightly like, say, the Swing Kids - and approaching at some times the full-on screamo sound. Melodies sit on top of the wall-of-sound guitars, and the rhythm is king. Listen to their final song, 'Newest Sound System'. The bass line throbs and wobbles heavily, the drums snap in and out, until the song explodes into the crushing rhythms of guitar noise:

"It's too loud, no-one listens/When we work the soundsystem"

Maximillian Colby's side is a collection of mostly instrumental, heavily Slint-influenced songs. In contrast I guess to the organic whole of the Shotmaker songs, these songs are disparate and fragmented. The opener, 'Last Name', strikes with sparse, heavy bursts of very Slinty guitar before it launches into its own explosion of Mohinder-like frantic screaming:

"What's your name?! What's your number?!"

The second song is even Slintier, recognizable not only by the very tuneful if minimal opening guitarwork but also by the eerily (or should that be spiderly?) similar guitar fuzz and disjointed chords. However, Maximillian Colby aren't solely a Slint rip-off; for a start, they aren't quite as frustratingly disjointed as the comparable Slint album, Tweez, and don't attempt to take their songs to the same rarified heights as Spiderland - with the exception perhaps of the split closer, 'Right Right Left', which is as repetititously minimalist as they come, but still suitably catharctic for a true emo album. Like the Lovitt site says:

"Maximillian Colby fashioned seminal works on their own terms. Neither purely aggressive nor depressingly somber, Maximillian Colby's music creates soundscapes that can rupture the eardrums and soon after lull the mind. As a band, they melded crisp whispers with clamor drenched in feedback to dizzying, cathartic effect...Maximillian Colby were all too happy to wring the utmost out of something as deceptively innocuous as a pair of notes, exploring their many inherently possible rhythms, dynamics, and effects."

In sum, this record won't change your life: unless you haven't happened to have heard these bands before.

Shotmaker-Maximillian Colby Split

Three Penny Opera - 2GTEG25H2G4503344

Three Penny Opera, named after a Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill musical, were the band which formed directly after the demise of the Canadian hardcore/emo group Shotmaker. Shotmaker, whose split with Maximillian Colby I have posted here (and referenced several times already), are one of the loudest and most uncompromising of all the 90's emo bands. Their signature sound - of playing "rocked-out emo like they were pissed as hell and wanted desperately to play fast but somehow couldn't", as Fourfa puts it - is very much continued in Three Penny Opera, with perhaps some better songwriting skills. Four songs, ten minutes, and one rather odd title.

Kicking off with a low hiss and a barrage of drumming, ‘New Kids Gang’ is nothing if not a raging, full-on electrical storm. While not quite as terrifyingly heavy as some of Shotmaker’s stuff, Three Penny Opera aren’t far off. In other words, they don’t mess with the formula much. ‘1,000 Miles’ adds in a few more characteristic breakdowns while the singer yells “It’s funny things just change” ("I remember smiling, laughing… and I remember, screaming"). ‘Separate Directions’ takes similar steps, bringing the guitar line down to throbbing, ponderous depths in a way which kind of remind me of the Swing Kids’ '43 Seconds’. Finally, ‘Observation’ takes off into frantic, high-pitched guitar riffs which puncture the wall of noise, periodically, like the calls of Sirens.

Shotmaker/Three Penny Opera are emo in the way that is a little bit different from, and a little bit similar to, a lot of the usual bands. Radin’s description still stands for Three Penny Opera – whether they are more or less pissed-off in their new Brechtian guise is for you, the audience, to decide. It’s the infuriating, explosive tension between blistering speed and achingly slow rhythm which defines these two bands. It is in that conflict that their art emerges; in the moment of poise between loud and fast, there’s a certain immanent beauty to be found. It’s not quite Zen Enlightenment, that propelling balance, but rather an instantaneous Quality of hardcore. Spiritual, no; mystical, perhaps; intangible, probably; musical, definitely.

The whole sonic aesthetic is so brutalised, battered and twisted in all of these songs that they clearly belong in the hardcore emo end of things, with bands like Mohinder, Swing Kids and, indeed, Max Colby. But Shotmaker, and even more so in the case of Three Penny Opera, are neither so fast nor so sparse as such bands. Shotmaker’s wall of noise was always something else; on this Three Penny Opera recording it seems the guitars are so loud and high that they become continuously lost in static, formless and unrecognizable. Maybe this band desperately wanted to play shoegaze, yet could never leave the hardcore sound: maybe they were just a band lost in a punk haze.

Three Penny Opera - 2GTEG25H2G4503344

My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise

My Bloody Valentine are the archetypal shoegaze[1] band. Their ethereal, shimmering sound has not only been imitated countless times, but forms the basis for many comparisons.[2] Loveless,[3] their landmark (and as it turned out, roadblock) album marked a modern masterpiece and the culmination of the band’s distinctive contribution to indie music.

I say culmination because Loveless came with a trail of undoubtedly, but only marginally, lesser releases.[4] Although the stories of the massive expense of the album’s recording are likely apocryphal or at least exaggerated, it was by most accounts a tortuous process: with Kevin Shields playing the role of Torquemada, shaping and fashioning the layered epic of Loveless.[5] It was the apex of their sound, shoegaze taken to its farther extension. Purer and more focused, yet hazier and more impenetrable than that which came before it, it was from at least one artistic dimension an end for My Bloody Valentine, the final coup de grace.

Undeniable though its claim to mastery of the form may be, Loveless does not quite stand alone and the preceding recordings have much to recommend them. Personally, the album in isolation was quite enough to get me hooked on MBV’s sound, but for some shoegaze is a capricious entity.[6] Perhaps, and this is a valid point, listeners prefer the more basic spread of Isn’t Anything to the stratospheric character of Loveless; a relative earthiness to counterpoint the final rarefied sculptings of the 1991 swansong.[7] In any case, the earlier My Bloody Valentine is comparatively more mundane – only comparatively, mind you – than its later transcendent form.

You could hardly call MBV punk, yet their earlier efforts are more straightforwardly rocky, not entirely the blissed-out cloudscapes that they are usually associated with.[8] Hence I present you with the You Made Me Realise EP, whose title track features a heavy melodic breakdown in the midst of the characteristic shoegaze-y elements; indeed it kicks off with the same pounding rhythm, sounding somewhat like something Shotmaker[9] could have written. A little frantic, a little high-strung, a little piece of indie music momentarily washed-up on the shores of hardcore:

My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise (1988)

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[1] Def: "Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze or shoegazer; practitioners referred to as shoegazers) is a genre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It lasted until the mid 1990s, peaking circa 1990 to 1991... the musicians in these bands often maintained a motionless performing style, standing on stage and staring at the floor while playing their instruments; hence, the idea that they were gazing at their shoes. The shoegazing sound featured extensive use of guitar effects, and indistinguishable vocal melodies that blended into the creative noise of the guitars. Few shoegazers were dynamic performers or interesting interviewees, which prevented them from breaking through into markets in the United States" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/shoegaze.
[2] Asobi Seksu and Jesu come to mind, both as examples of conscious imitation and of imposed comparison. Kind of at opposite ends of the ‘nice’ spectrum, though. I haven't listened to Asobi Seksu, although they do get some good radio time; this limited issue 7" is pretty nifty. However, I don't really warm to Jesu (see [6] below).
[3] My Bloody Valentine, Loveless. Creation Records, 1991. (Hey, blend/sbj - Harvard style footnotes!)
[4] Principally the full-length Isn’t Anything, the Feed With Me Kiss and You Made Me Realise EPs, but also the Glider and Tremolo EPs which took songs from Loveless.
[5] For further reading – seriously, this is very detailed and interesting - see this Florida music student’s dissertation on the album: http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-04102006-103749/.
[6] Capricious, adj. – from the Italian caprice, lit. ‘hedgehog’; see my previous post on Envy’s Insomniac Doze (Sonzai/Rock Action, 2006) for a discussion of shoegaze and its accessibility.
[7] My Bloody Valentine, Isn’t Anything. Creation Records, 1988; in its time as influential as Loveless but in places lacks the latter’s focus and cohesiveness. Similar artistic style and layout.
[8] A key critical debate on Loveless is whether it is best described as ‘druggy sex’ or ‘sexy drugs’. There is a general consensus, however, that it approximates to the ‘sound of angels fucking in a pink haze’. See here: http://www.punknews.org/review/1630
[9] Shotmaker, Complete Discography 1993-1996. Troubleman Unlimited, 2000; seminal hardcore/emo band from Ottawa. Seriously recommended is their split EP with Maximillian Colby; see also Three Penny Opera 1 2.

Slint - Live @ Tripod, Dublin

A roughly chronological account of the gig...

1. The morning before, when I was finding the link for blend's review of Spiderland, I noticed that it had been posted in March of this year, meaning I had only been listening to Slint for less than five months. Scary.

2. Before the show started, we were all wondering how they were going to stretch this beyond 40 minutes... it's a good question. Part of the answer is, obviously, they didn't come on stage for an hour after the printed time (but all bands do that anyway). The rest of the answer... well, skip to 4. if you want to know quickly.

3. When they started playing the first few bars of 'Breadcrumb Trail', it sounded like the most familiar thing in the world. This was basically like listening to the album, but better in every way. Or if you were able to listen to the album at tremendous volume, in a room full of people, maybe that... The first sequence of 'Breadcrumb Trail' and 'Nosferatu Man' was pretty damn rocking, and then they slowed it down a bit for 'Don, Aman', when the two guitars came and sat opposite each other on stools in the middle of the stage. Halfway through 'Washer' I was thinking, maybe now I understand a little bit more what Indian Summer felt 'with the needle dragging the end of the slint lp', and where they took a lot of their sound from. The same with 'For Dinner' and the echoes of Max Colby... not really that all those bands are derivative, but that Slint just created this massively important aesthetic. Finally, with 'Good Morning, Captain', we were left with "I MISS YOU!!!" reverberating in our ears, and wondering... what happens now?

3a. To the friend who tried to ring me just before they started 'Good Morning, Captain', thanks. Really appreciate it. The phone stayed off the rest of the gig, and I hope you found the answer to your question elsewhere. Also, it was fun meeting up with everyone in the pub afterwards, saying 'Who the hell are Slint?'. The best band ever, obviously...

4. They played 'Glenn' and 'Rhoda'! That is, after playing Spiderland in its entirety, they played the Glenn/Rhoda EP in its entirety. I was pretty stoked to hear the album, and that would in itself have made the gig awesome, but hearing those two songs live just blew me away. Especially after just writing a review of those songs, to hear them so unexpectedly was memorable to say the least. Mind you, I used to think 'Glenn' was a quiet song. Not so live, however... 'Rhoda' was also upgraded to "earth-shattering". Just awesome.

5. In fact, they stretched out what everyone was expecting to be a six-song gig into a nine-song gig, with the addition of 'Glenn', 'Rhoda' and another song I didn't recognize, [but which I now know is 'King's Approach'] this one new song they have been playing as an encore. It was a kind of heavy, complex guitar song... at that point, I was already glutted on old-school Slint, so I didn't take much notice. It was quite different, actually, from anything that they're known for, and to be honest wasn't really my style. I can see why it has that name, though...

6. Now, when do I get to see 'The For Carnation Performing The For Carnation'?

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And now, for a kind of postscript/piece de resistance, this 12'' record was released one year after Glenn/Rhoda, sits 3 CDs in front of Spiderland in my own collection, is deservedly one of Andy Radin's 'top emo records', and is an excellent split, combining two major bands with differing yet complementary styles, and indeed containing some of the best songs ever released by either group: the Shotmaker-Maximillian Colby split (as if this post needed any more Slint worship!). (Note: I just made the split myself from the tracks culled from their discographies, so apologies if these are technically the wrong versions or something... neither do I know which band should come first, this is just the way I've always loved and listened to it!)

Leatherface, Hot Water Music - BYO Split Series Vol. 1

Be prepared for a highly personal eulogy, and for a seriously good record:

This album was the first of a series of split releases from BYO records, pairing up major punk acts. Split releases are always a good way of discovering new artists, and this was the best example of that fact for me.

When I bought this, I was hunting for Hot Water Music albums, having finally - and almost ecstatically - 'got' A Flight and a Crash as well as, I think, having received No Division mail order. (Incidentally, this was also a little after seeing Repeater second-hand and saying to Mr. X "Fugazi - they're meant to be kinda of good, aren't they?" ... shortly after which he bought up their entire catalogue and starting comparing them to Radiohead). I may have already heard of Leatherface, just as another English punk band, but I wasn't too pushed about them either way.

Now, this was not too long ago; long enough for these albums to have been out a while and for me not exactly to be keeping pace with the development of modern post-hardcore. But it was back in the day when I still carried a CD player around with me - MP3? what MP3? - so on the bus back from Tower Records I stuck this straight on to 'Andy', the first track.

I had, literally, never heard a song so good. I had to play it again, just to make sure my ears weren't deceiving me. And right there, I was hooked on Leatherface. 'Andy', from the instant it begins, is pure sublime punk rock. Emotional, rip-roaring, melodic, brash, with more than a deft flick of pop sensibility and lulling, powerful rhythms, all wrapped in a bittersweet joyous catharsis; so beautiful it should break your heart. Infected with a breathless energy which hardly dissipates as the next song, 'Eat Her Face' begins.

Thereafter, with 'Wax Lyrical', the pace is slowed down a bit but keeps the tension and the emotion taut, so that every hook, every surge of melody plays on your nerves like some kind of a tearjerker. It's not just the music - as Stubbs sings the chorus "you open your mouth to move your feet, you open your heart if it's for surgery", you vibrate on some kind of higher plane of emotion.

It's kind of hard to keep up this kind of energy for long, but Leatherface's six songs really do succeed. You're talking levels of speed, density, volume and sheer involvement comparable to the Ramones s/t here. This is serious music - for serious people, perhaps, but more likely just for people who really appreciate an immense wall of noisy, emotive punk coming at them from the speakers.

It's not really surprising that these songs are so good - they are probably Leatherface's best, only Mush as a full-length holding any sort of claim over that title. Direct and uncompromising, this is Leatherface's comeback record, after breaking up on a high - see here. They aren't as raw as the earlier work, and they are quite lush and well-produced by some of their standards, but the power of these songs is carried off with ease.

Leatherface was, then, a tough act to follow. I have to say that at the time the Hot Water Music side of this record was quite eclipsed by the Leatherface songs. These kind of mid-period Hot Water Music songs seem a little toned down compared to the unleashed power of the preceding tracks, but they rock pretty heavily too. And over time, I have come to appreciate the introspection and balance of these songs; by now they are pretty much completely rehabilitated, so that I can nearly hold them equal to the Leatherface half. 'Caught Up' and 'Wrong and Righteous' are excellent, but if one song would justify Hot Water Music's claim to equality on this release, it would be the album closer, 'The Bitter End' - anthemic, weighty, visceral and one of the best songs Hot Water Music ever recorded.

BYO Split Series Vol. 1, 'Leatherface together with Hot Water Music' is one of my very favourite albums, and top amongst the peculiarly hardcore sub-genre of split records - along with Shotmaker-Maximillian Colby and Ampere-Sinaloa. I hope I have done it justice in describing its myriad qualities, because it deserves all the praise it can get. But just in case, I've added in a few more words from the liner notes, and some choice excerpts from the lyrics (both bands have great songwriting talents, even if, as they say, I'd listen to them singing the phone book).

Finally, this week has marked the passing of Lance Hahn, singer and songwriter with the well-known band J Church, which was very much in the same axis of 90's punk-pop, post-hardcore bands as these guys, and who often toured together. Check out sweetbabyjaysus's post here; and check out the posts on our fucking boundaries too.

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"When Stubbs and Co. first emerged, pre-Nevermind, before U.S. punk became a new, briefly pathetic plaything for the collegiate, moshing masses, Leatherface was but one of hundreds of brave, hard-working underground bands abroad and here. Now, in a time where there are thousands of faceless, nameless, imagination-less, cookie-cutter "Alternative" bands instead - so much warmed-over metal and 10th-rate punk - Stubbs' tantalizing songwriting, and erudite, generous-heart-on-sleeve lyrics, on top of the band's crisp, explosive playing, and most of all, their outright, undeniable desire, seems a total anomaly as well as an antidote. That this unexpected LP is a reality, and that Leatherface's ardent onslaught will fire of stages here soon, is that rarest of things: a longshot wish fulfilled."

(Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover)

"Their [Hot Water Music's} sound is most often compared to bands like Fuel or Avail - melodic but energetic. In a reviw of their "Fuel For the Hate Game" LP, Mike Kirsch, a member of Fuel and a writer for Maximum Rock'N'Roll, once described their sound as having "in some ways, a very pretty quality, but what sets it apart is a subtle, seething tension boiling just under the surface." Hot Water Music has a powerful, complex sound that pulls you in. Their live show, in particular, lives up to the Avail comparison - you don't truly know this band until you've seen them play and felt the almost electric energy they send out."

(Jen Angel, Fucktooth Fanzine)

"The first second I heard 'Colorado Joe/Leningrad Vlad' exploding from Pat Hughes' speakers, I was hooked. Finding not only a group's music, which picked me up and carried me through anything or anyone that wished to bastardize my life, but a movement of lyrical documentaries I could relate with all too often. This song, 'Springtime,' that we tried not to butcher too horribly is just another one of those songs..."

(Hot Water Music, Never Ender)

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"one mans bet

is another mans debt

one womans love

is another womans violence

one womans style

is anothers chance to be cruel a while

this mans drink

is that mans alcoholic for real

the day won't come

& i'd like to thank someone

for leaving us to get things wrong

i pray that day won't come when all thats wrong

is how much we love everyone..."

(Leatherface - 'Gang Party', track 06)

"i won't change where i stand now.

on leaving hate and keeping warmth.

and i won't take to your cold, because

i believe that there is more to life than

just living. and i don't see how you can

stay so covered with cold. i wish you

would open up and shine the light that i knew."

(Hot Water Music - 'The Bitter End', track 11)

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Leatherface/Hot Water Music - BYO Split Series Vol. 1

Reasons to be Emo #200 / Hoover - The Lurid Traversal of Route 7

200th post/reason -

Previous Reasons to be Emo*:

#150 / Hot Water Music - Moonpies for Misfits

#140 / Swing Kids - Discography

#100 / Jawbreaker - Dear You

#50 / Shotmaker/Maximillian Colby - Split

#1 ? / Han Shan - s/t 7"

* if you think about shit like that, that is. Excellent analysis of that question here on the Prisonship. The half-dozen featured examples here aren't meant to be canonical, and definitely are not intended to be definitive; instead, they are choices of what that genre means to me, an ongoing selection of diverse highpoints.

'Distant'

The core of the genealogy, The Lurid Traversal of Route 7 was Hoover's only full-length recording. Originally recorded in 1993, in the first year of the Clinton administration, released on Dischord Records in 1994, and remastered in 2004/5. The last three songs on the CD version, 'Return', 'Private' and 'Dries' were from a separate vinyl release from the LP of Lurid Traversal, and together make up thirteen tracks on the album.

'Distant' opens up with atmospheric noise, harsh and mechanical, and a little bit of percussion, then rhythm, and then the heavy guitars kick in. It's taut, it's tense - barely controlled rage and stop-start dynamics over low, slinking basslines. "3000 mile view/ through a telescope" with the last word screamed out with an unexpected, yet not incongruent, intensity. 'Pretender' operates on the same kind of taut rhythms, locked into a driving groove with propelling guitar and vocals. The song moves forward and upwards with every riff, until disintegrating momentarily at the end.

'Electrolux' builds the sound up again slowly, with deliberate beats and ominous, humming guitar. Clearer guitar balances the equation, lulling the dubb-y, intense atmposhere of the song along. 'Electrolux' erupts, first in guitars, in shouts and screams, and then in vibrant trumpet, a soaring cacophony of sound that swells and collapses back into the rhythm below, which has grown in intensity. Minimalism conflicts with outward expression, emotion with weighty, deliberate pace.

'Electrolux'

Every song on Lurid Traversal drips with intensity and emotion, balancing explosive hardcore and post-hardcore with near-empty, Slinty post-rock, shifting between states with every verse (though, of course, there are no verses to the lyrics). Thus a song like 'Shut' winds it way between quiet and loud in a very Fugazi-ish way, focusing its emotional punch on the crescendo of guitars, yet also expressing itself in the transitional spaces between sounds. The tone created is extremely dark but with carefully crafted, melodic moments of beauty - like the cricket-filled instrumental passage of 'Route 7' - entwined with deep and sonorous rhythms. It's accessible at the same time - the opening to 'Regulator Watts' trips lightly and gently underneath whispered, distant vocals.

Again, the emphasis on rhythm propels the album on through each song, carrying the momentum of post-hardcore heaviness onwards each time, ripping it up and building it up again. 'Father' combines the stop-start dynamic with a near-continuous, insistent beat, rapidly advancing towards its chaotic explosion, and disintegrating like 'Pretender' into annihilating noise. Similar but more immediate and direct than 'Electrolux', 'Cable' shouts out its rhythms with brassy, brash anxiety, and climbs into the heights with distorted reggae and blues riffs.

'Letter'

The dynamics and contrasts of typical 'emo' guitar bands, like the tender yet destructive passions of Indian Summer, course through The Lurid Traversal, but are combined with the equally typical complexities of Dischord post-hardcore groups, resulting in epic and intense creations of late-model punk rock. The first part is evident on the arpeggiated, whispered intro to 'Letter' and its linear progress to ear-crushing, violent catharsis; the second in the equally quiet, almost abstract opening to 'Cuts Like Drugs' and, then, its expressionistic guitar jabs combined with enveloping sound and tense rhythm. In fact, the catharsis of the latter eventually emerges as the most intense of the Hoover sound.

'Cuts Like Drugs' (Live on WFMU - thanks to Matt for splitting it up)

"Some people say this sounds like Fugazi,and they miss the point. It sounds like classic DC twin-guitar midtempo style, as do Fugazi and a hundred other bands. The important part was the way the evil slithering basslines made it seem so dark and serious, and the way the singer worked up from whispering to a tortured animal howl at the end. 'Cuts Like Drugs' has it all."

Andy Radin (fourfa.com)

"The epic "Cuts Like Drugs" plays out like the bastard child of Lungfish and Fugazi, a slow plodding drone with the guitars feedback chiming in and out wrapping itself in and around the package fully developing the experience. But it is the song "Cable" that in my eyes stand out on its own. A hymn of dissatisfaction, the brooding demons that swim through all our minds. When they cry out, "I was programed to kill you." it's almost heartbreaking in how at its most earnest these words speak out in the most succinct fashion of modern day society."

sweetbabyjaysus (Burning Down the Dreams of Forever)

"Hoover were one of the greatest DC bands to come from the Dischord label. Their full length, The Lurid Traversal of Route 7 was and is one of my favorite records. Fred Erskines bass (later of Crownhate Ruin and June of 44) is a driving force and the twin monotone guitars of Dunham and McRedmond cut and scathe and slither while Christopher Farrall keeps everything in time. Or out of time, in a very Hooverish way."

blend77 (Zen and the Art of Face Punching)

"hoover is probably the most influential dischord band never to feature ian mackaye. They arrived in them halcyon early 90s days when DC was starting to register the profound effects of dubby, downbeat-y rhythms and of touch and go records heavies like slint, the jesus lizard, rapeman et. al. Their the lurid transversal of route 7 is for me a high point in american hard/punk/core/rock…

despite so many of our friends getting engaged one way or another with corporate rocking for best and worst, dischord - and hoover - always spoke to a kind of freedom (to rock, to angst-i-fy, to experiment) that only the outlands of indie rock could abide, at least back then."

lexdexter (The Prisonship)

I'll leave you to appreciate 'Return', 'Private' and 'Dries' yourselves:

The Lurid Traversal of Route 7 on Dischord Records (CD/digital)

Download link (from Burning Down the Dreams of Forever)

Slowdime (reunion) EP and Side Car Freddie/Cable 7"

Hard Working / Bloggers

The annual new Irish alternative/indie music showcase, line-up announced today.

From Unarocks:

202's / 79Cortinaz / A Lazarus Soul / The Aftermath / Alphamono / The Ambience Affair / Angel Pier / Armoured Bear / Mark Austin / Autamata / Bats / The Beat Poets / Bravado / The Brothers Movement / The Cades / Carly Sings / Nick Carswell & The Elective Orchestra / Caruso / Chequerboard / Cian / Class Of 1984 / Ollie Cole / Crayonsmith / Cutaways / The Dagger Lees / Deaf Animal Orchestra / Distractors / Dolbro Dan / Dublin Duck Dispensary / Exit: Pursued By A Bear / Fiach / Fighting With Wire / Valerie Francis / Fred / Gorbachov / Grand Pocket Orchestra / Groom / Halves / Headgear / Heartbreak Cartel / The Holy Roman Army / Hooray for Humans / The Hot Sprockets / Hybrasil / Kill Krinkle Club / The Kinetiks / The Last Tycoons / Le Galaxie / Lines Drawing Circles / Little Xs For Eyes / Mackerel The Cat / Tom McShane / Fiona Melady / The Minutes / Walter Mitty & The Realists / More Tiny Giants / My Brother Woody / Nakatomi Plaza / New Amusement / Noise Control / Not Men But Giants / One Day International / The Followers of Otis / Panama Kings / The Parks / Pilotlight / Pocket Promise / The Rags / The Revellions / Robotnik / John Shelly and the Creatures / Sickboy / Sideproject / So Cow / Sounds of System Breakdown / Sparks Fly / The Spook of The Thirteenth Lock / Super Extra Bonus Party / Supermodel Twins / Sweet Jane / Tidal District / Tiger Empire / David Turpin / The Vinny Club / Vodkopter / Youre Only Massive

I've never been before, for the most part because I listened to very little Irish indie music even just a year ago, but assuming I do go, these artists I'll be trying to catch: A Lazarus Soul (because there's plenty to build on the last time I saw them), Bats ('cos I need to seem them for a fourth time), Chequerboard, Crayonsmith, Fighting With Wire (as much from what I've heard of their music as for the fact that the bassist was wearing a Future of the Left t-shirt in a video I saw of them), Fred, Grand Pocket Orchestra (seen them once before, supporting Fight Like Apes the first time I saw them - while Those Geese Were Stupified reckons they're up to supplant the newly slickened headliners), Halves, Hooray for Humans (hopefully this time with a drummer), So Cow and The Vinny Club. Amongst others. And of course, the point of the festival is to discover new acts as well.

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On a slightly different note, some new like-minded hardcore/alternative-type blogs which have been added to my blogroll recently:

failing the rorschach test is a cretinous curmudgeon from Canada with a liking for Bats and their Cruel Sea Scientist EP. Only a handful of posts so far, but they're detailed and well-written and as well as posting Mission of Burma, Streetlight Manifesto and Pg.99, there is also the excellent Please Inform The Captain This Is A Hijack - Defeat Or Humiliate The United States Of America.

One of Mike Kirsch's numerous bands, it takes the sampling approach of the preceding project Bread And Circuits and amplifies it. Bread And Circuits used Fela Kuti, while Defeat Or Humiliate... samples Stokely Carmichael - amongst others - and separates the album into brief hardcore tracks and ambient spoken word/instrumental samples. Anyway, follow the link to read about it more and download it.

Computers That Breathe is a blog of a guy called Brooklyn Bill, which has also only been around for about a month and has about a dozen posts up. Mostly 80s-90s post-hardcore and alternative rock with Unwound, Shudder To Think, Chavez and a bizarro-universe version of Husker Du called Moving Targets which is actually really good. Or as he says,

"Listen, I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers or piss on anyone's gods but in my humble opinion MOVING TARGETS' RECORDS BURNING IN WATER AND BRAVE NOISE ARE AS GOOD AS HUSKER DU'S ZEN ARCADE AND NEW DAY RISING. There. I'm glad I got that off my chest because its been eating a hole in my stomach for 18 years".

The Art Beats the Thing Itself is not really a music blog (it's an art blog, pretty much - but hey, I've got one of those myself too) but the guy who runs it, Zack Thrower, is in a band. And not just any band, but a quite awesome hardcore/screamo band of the original late 90s/mid-00s style we all know and love - their myspace cites Shotmaker, Spirit of Versailles, Frail and Kaospilot amongst others under 'sounds like'. Anyway, they're called Nationale, they're from Georgia in the US, and they have a four-song CD demo quite excellently packaged available via their Myspace. Check it out, and the blog which follows the production of their flyers and demo artowork.

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And finally, to return a little way to the beginning of the post, The Indie Hour has been on blogroll for a while but with the last mixtape on this blog a reminder is probably in order. The Indie Hour blog is run by Aoife MC who also presents the show of the same name on 103.2 Dublin City FM every Thursday 9-10pm (I'm listening to it right now, which is kinda weird). Bats, Terrordactyl, Adebisi Shank from that mix have all been featured on the show - the second two artists coincidentally starting off tonight's show - as well as bands I've written about myself like Fight Like Apes, Hooray for Humans and Halves (I'm about to write about them, anyway). Each show usually features an interview with and live performances from an artist - tonight is Heathers, who have just returned from their US summer tour. And the best part is that the shows are available to download as a mp3/podcast after they've been broadcast.

No Covers* - an art post (with music)

Above: the original photograph for my cover of Regulator Watt's New Low Moline 7"

(* a Mclusky reference. You can never have too many; and if you can't kill Kenny, you can't do anything right)

Following on from this dodgy artwork, thankfully authenticated as a fair copy, I humbly present some more artwork I've had to dream up myself. I like to have even the smallest release that I download and like in its own paper sleeve, which can be a problem when the only pictures of the cover art are tiny little gif files. Generally, even a 300x300 jpeg doesn't produce a very good CD cover (which is why the album artwork on this site is a standard 400-pixel width). Hence, I've made a few covers of my own, using my own photographs and a little bit of basic Photoshop editing.

I guess the idea was to follow the 'emo' style of artwork, which supposedly "tends toward abstract black-and-white photographs of rusted/broken things (especially machinery), drawings of flowers, and pictures of old men, little boys, and little girls" (fourfa.com), but not to follow it too slavishly.

Click to see larger.

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Current/Indian Summer - split 7", Homemade Records No. 6, July 1993

1. Key

2. Orchard

The photo: a statue, by water, in Altamont gardens, Co. Carlow, Ireland. For the past few years I've been doing the majority of my photography through black-and-white (very easy on a digital camera!) just so I can concentrate on form and lines, contrasts etc. The addition of the text didn't go quite so well, trying to place it not too obtrusively but still legibly. It's Current with a 'u' and Indian Summer with a 'Ind', by the way, in case you can't make it out. Not sure why I chose yellow, either.

The record: I don't rate Current quite as high as some other emo bands, but this song is really good. It's relatively simple, and not particularly long by Moss Icon or Indian Summer stands, but it has the 'emo' rhythm and emotional release down pat. Check out these lyrics:

"I cut my key from wood

for inexpensiveness

I cut my key from stone

for everlastness

but now I have found a way

to make it all better...

Indian Summer's 'Orchard' was, along with Moss Icon's 'Guatemala', one of the songs that got me into emo. I know that a lot of people from around the time, and probably still now, disliked the echoey sound of the track, and admittedly, it is quite strong (as well as the vinyl crackles). But it also makes for one hell of a powerful song, and probably one of the band's best. When I heard it first, I had just been listening to Envy's A Dead Sinking Story for about a year or so, and to hear something else as uniquely dynamic and proto-'screamo' was pretty mindblowing. Where I first heard that song, along with 'Guatemala', Swing Kids' '43 Seconds', Mohinder's 'Numb', etc., was on the 'mesa verde' list of mp3s, via fourfa again (it now seems to be gone).

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Rye Coalition/Maximillian Colby - split 7", irony recordings 002/rent-a-records 552.002, 1998

1. Dover

2. One Gallon Alda

The photo: a straw field in the countryside of Morbihan (Brittany), France. Clearly this was taken in the summer, when the straw had already been baled. Using a red filter to convert to b&w (or noir et blanc as they say in those parts) turned the strewn straw snow white, and then I later turned the whole thing dark sepia for effect. The trees aren't the most interesting backdrop in the world, but the curves of the field and focal point of the telegraph pole work quite well. It was a hot July day, which I think comes across somewhat in the brightness of the picture. Finally, the characters of the title were jiggled around with, to appear typewritten or labelled on, and coloured brown to blend into the photograph.

The record: Rye Coalition, like Current, aren't a huge favourite of mine, and this record is mostly for the Max Colby song. But Rye Co (Max Co and Rye Co... ha!) have a pretty good mathy, angsty song here. It's surprisingly Slinty at the start, and has an emo-ish rhythm in parts not too dissimilar from the songs on the split above. If you want to hear more early Rye Coalition, check out rgratzer's post here, and my link in the first comment there.

The Rye Coalition and Maximillian Colby sides complement each other nicely, in a similarly slinty/mathy style. 'One Gallon Alda' is a pretty aggressive track at times, and at times very heavy for an emo band. Listening to this should make you want to thrash, as well as stare in awe at your stereo speakers (which is why there are alternately quiet and loud parts). Almost as good as 'New Jello', which is the first track on their epic discography CD ('One Gallon Alda' is one of the last few tracks) and probably the one single Max Colby songs that everyone needs to hear.

Beyond that, I can best refer you to the description from Lovitt Records which I posted in my last post on Shotmaker/Maximillian Colby:

"Neither purely aggressive nor depressingly somber, Maximillian Colby's music creates soundscapes that can rupture the eardrums and soon after lull the mind"

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rgratzer says:

"if you really wanted to get an "emo" picture in there, you should crop it terribly, crank up the contrast so that it's basically a stencil, and then situate the picture near a corner while the rest of the cover is blank space ;)"

I say, funny you should say that; because that pretty much describes perfectly this cover:

www.mesaverde.co.uk/mp3 (now defunct; see end of the last paragraph on Current/Indian Summer, above)

The photo: an inset of a larger photograph of an unidentified piece of machinery (rusted/broken, of course) found by railway tracks at Blackrock, on the Dublin coast. I coloured it a deep blue just to make it a bit more interesting than plain black and white; and also, with further similar mp3s, I made '[mesaverde II]' and '[mesaverde III]' compilations with identical covers, but coloured in crimson and gold, respectively. Apart from the general 'emo-ness' of the photograph, I was quite pleased with the placing of the objects, and the lower-case, square-bracketed text (also in deep blue, as you'll notice). From what I remember, the brackets also served the useful purpose of putting the compilation at the top of my iTunes list of albums, instead of down in the middle of all the real albums under 'm'.

The record: Mesa Verde (two words) was/is a 'emo' band from the UK - Scotland I think - and there was posted up on their website a long list of sample mp3 from a variety of key bands from that genre - basically everything from Rites of Spring's 'Drink Deep' to Orchid's 'Aesthetic Dialectic'. Not many surprises for most people on this site, I reckon, but a damn good compilation nonetheless and an excellent introduction to the genre, if it were to be posted up somewhere.

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Indian Summer - Discography (link via Burning Down The Dreams of the Forever; entitled 'Science'), 1994

(One of my earliest covers, and probably the one I'm still most proud of; also, one of the most influential records in my listening history)

The photo: a close up of a tree trunk from a forest near the coast of Galicia, extreme north-west Spain. The bark was peeling from the trunk, leaving mostly a smooth surface behind. As you can probably see from the shaow, it was late afternoon so the sun was bright but it still left one side - the rough half - of the trunk in shadow. Using Photoshop I increased the contrast on the scan (I was still using film at the the time) and washed out all the pale surface of the tree trunk, leaving a blank surface for the title - always important. Looking back on it, I'm not sure the combination of the two fonts was best advised - they're just standard MS Word fonts, too - and is in fact maybe a little distracting. However, the curlicued band font I think adds a slightly exotic flavour, while picking up on the curves of the peeling bark; and the block letters for the title pick up on the sombreness and stark contrasts of the picture. Even more so than the Max Colby/Rye Coalition cover, the whiteness exudes heat along with the visual key of the dry, cracked bark; while it isn't technically faithful to the idea of an 'indian summer', it's recognizably connected.

The record: I'm not sure I know where to start... I've begun already with a short discussion of 'Orchard', so I guess I'll work from there. In the broad church of screamo, Envy and Indian Summer are indelibly linked for me, mainly because they were my original introduction to the genre but also they kind of stand as pioneers at both ends of its development - nearly. When I first heard this I was barely aware that people made music that was simultaneoulsy so achingly quiet and sweet, and crushingly loud and fierce. More than that, this discography is a perfect artistic experience, with its long, rambling epic songs, lightly recorded 'emo-peggio', lo-fi Bessie Smith samples to

"emulate the nights in Oakland we spent fucked up/passed out with the needle dragging the end of the slint LP"

and above all, its brash, crushing dynamism: most of which, it must be noted, is even starker than the slow build-up of 'Orchard' - songs like 'Angry Son' or 'Touching the Wings of an Angel' literally erupt from nothingness; or at least mumbling, half-silent near-nothingness.

This release could really do with its own post, but plenty of blogs have got there first. Sweetbabyjaysus sums it up as follows:

"When it comes to beauty in the genre, Indian Summer have found their place well. Coming out of Oakland, they brought a sense of earnestness hardcore was missing. They brought to the table their influences and mixed them with their own ideas and personal politics, creating something that would live past it's physical time. Like many of the greats of the day they too were short lived, only nine songs recorded total, but each a testament to their majesty.

This is the sound of the celebrated summer."

(burningdowndreams.blogspot.com)

Or blend77, from one of the very earliest posts on his blog (I've included the comments section, which is kind of weird, but nevertheless it says nearly as much about the importance of the band as the reviews do; and also, the 'real' cover of the discography - or of one of the discographies - which I hadn't seen before making the cover, yet which nevertheless has an interesting similarity with it):

"Seeing as how this is the beginning of a new blog, I will take the opportunity to give you a small idea of what I am up to. This blog is a place for me to give homage to all the things that are amazing and creative in this world, artists that break the boundaries of what is considered music and art. I have a very healthy obsession with music so I plan to offer exposure to bands and musicians I find to have contributed something important to the evolution of music. I also work as an artist in NYC so I would like to introduce artists that I find relevant, or maybe even some classics that have be influential through the years. I may also share other oddities and curiosites that I come across in everyday life. But for now, let's continue with the music.

Indian Summer is an emo band. Oops, I said it, "Emo". The word that has everyone spouting opinions and criticisms. I'm not going to take the time to explain to you what emo is, you either know, or think you know, or you don't care. Its somewhat relative anyway. If you really want to find out, check here. Either way Indian Summer are without a doubt one of the best and shining examples of that form of music; from the quiet-loud dynamics and whispered-screamed lyrics, all the way down to the lo-fi quality and even Bessie Smith records playing in the background. 9 songs of chaotic screamy emo hardcore, the sum total of their recorded career. All of their stuff is out of print, including this discography, so take the opportunity to grab this one for your collection."

6 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing band. I'm looking forward to what you are going to be posting in this blog, it's been pretty good already.

3:43 PM

Jake said...

Thanks for posting this. I've been looking for it forever. You're the only other person I've met in years who's even heard of Indian Summer. Judging from what you've posted so far it looks like we came of age around the same time musically.

6:31 PM

blend77 said...

no problem. ^_^ it took me forever to find it in MP3 format.. i have the 7"s but no record player. v_v....

apparently many younger kids searching for the original emo have found all sorts of great stuff and are keeping it alive. and they all talk about it and post all the time. keep in touch, i got some good stuff comin.

7:36 PM

YoYoPunk said...

This is amazing! Thank you so much!

1:18 PM

blend77 said...

nice! ^_^ big smiles...

4:01 PM

Sam said...

I think "Angry Son" on a weird vinyl rip was the key moment in my music listening career. In a certain sense, everything I've done concerning the underground since that point has been to recapture the first time I heard that song.

3:06 AM

(zen-face-punch.blogspot.com/indian+summer)

The best information and random unreleased tuneage on Indian Summer is probably to be found here:

http://www.myspace.com/indiansummersongs

Who'd a thunk?