Drive Like Jehu - Yank Crime (LP + 7")

"...the driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi - for he driveth furiously"

(2 Kings 9:20)

"Originally released in 1994 on Interscope, Yank Crime is without question the greatest post-hardcore album ever recorded, and also one of the great guitar albums. The 12 strings of Rick Froberg and John Reis' guitars flirt and taunt, melding into a chugging whirr of locomotion. Froberg's pained vocals ache and plead on epic standouts "Luau" and "Sinews," which culminate in tightly wound, extended jams that exhibit both astonishing guitar technique and strong senses of arrangement and melody. Many have copied Yank Crime, but none have matched it. "

(Yancey Strickler, The eMusic Dozen: Post-Hardcore)

Yank Crime was an album I first heard about the same time as I started getting into the Swing Kids, probably a little before. So I kind of heard it in a vacuum, and was totally amazed, while just recently I came back to it because of a new purchase. It's still amazing (and on coloured vinyl, even more - and pretentiously - so!)

Drive Like Jehu are the focus and the front for a lot of the San Diego-core bands, in that so much of their spazzy, frenetic, self-destructive sound comes from this band - and specifically, this album - and in that Drive Like Jehu aren't actually that obscure at all (compared to Swing Kids, or Mohinder, that is). You know when there's this band that you know from its connection to a narrow bunch of niche genre bands, and their CD turns up in the general rock/pop section at Tower? That's Drive Like Jehu.

Yank Crime is a loud, violent album that absolutely rocks, as well as combining enough mathy shit to get into your head at every listen. The first side of the LP, 'Here Come The Rome Plows', 'Do You Compute' and 'Luau', is possibly the single greatest piece of post-hardcore and/or punk music ever to be grouped together in the one place. 'Here Come the Rome Plows' as balls-out rockers, as energetic as almost anything on Gravity, and 'Do You Compute' as a perfect example of the invasive mathiness mentioned above.

The second side isn't quite as loud and violent, although it's still equally tense and aggressive at its high points. 'Super Unison' straddles a lot of Drive Like Jehu's sound, repetitive and ingrained heaviness in places, momentarily quiet and tender in others, and sometimes just both at once. In fact, towards the end it seems to launch off into another kind of song altogether, before being restrained back to its (ordinary) mathiness; while the follower, 'Golden Brown', is (just) another hypnotics shouter. 'Sinews', deservedly considered one of the album's standouts, builds up incrementally from humble beginnings without ever losing momentum or continuity, stepping deftly between heavy rhythm and noisy guitar effects.

The full CD version of Yank Crime can be a bit gruelling, which makes the vinyl so attractive, the LP closing on 'Sinews' and the last three songs collected on a separate 7" record (which plays at 33 rpm). 'Human Interest' picks up the energy and intensity right up again, riding the cusp between fierceness and dissolution in its pounding sound. 'New Intro' reintroduces the chiming guitars and mathy interplay of other songs, not least among them 'Sinews', before carrying the song off in a wash of feedback; while the flip side, 'New Math' lays down a closing slab of rhythmically destructive and unabashedly hardcore math-rock.

Simply put, Yank Crime is a loud and fast album which isn't afraid to go slow at times to make its point. Not just San Diego music scene c. 94-95, but a lot of music in the decade and further afterwards, is in debt to or echoes its sound. Anything loud, noisy and exciting, basically.

"...I heard both Jehu albums around the same time, must have been 1994 or 1995. And to my mind they had perfected rock music. Post-Jehu, whenever I heard a new band that was trying to play fast and/or loud, it felt limp. I just turned it off and put on Jehu. For about a decade—literally!—I never once felt the need to purchase albums by rock bands (particularly new ones). Perhaps it’s not coincidental that the most typical brand of indie rock during those ten years was the nascent genre of emo, which was ridiculously in debt to Jehu, among other bands (too, all those spazzcore bands, largely hailing from San Diego, who also owed much to Jehu). Lots of people credit Rites of Spring as being the original emo band, and I won’t argue against their influence; but Jehu had a significant impact as well, in the form of the octave chord.

Much like Slint inspiring a myriad sub-par post-rock acts to abandon upstrokes, Drive Like Jehu neutered the power chord. The crunch of the power chord felt almost amateur compared to the sharp-edged attack of the octave. The worst (and most prevalent) emo bands took as their template the inward-looking lyrics of Rites of Spring, the song structures of Orange County pop punk, and the octave chord of Drive Like Jehu.* You might see, then, why I felt this music paled in comparison to Yank Crime. These bands missed everything else."

(Pretty Goes with Pretty: Life Changing Albums: Drive Like Jehu's Yank Crime)

"...It'd be bullshit to claim that DLJ's dalliance in time signatures gave them any great intellectual edge over their relations; in fact, the aim with this record (and to a lesser extent, the duo's similarly awesome debut) was to see just how messy math could get. "Luau", a solid 9? minutes of shifting, epic muck in the middle of the album, is a strong contender for that (or any) crown. Somehow, though, it's still a sing-along, with Froberg and Thingy's Rob Crow exchanging weird, plaintive, and perfectly placed cries of "Aloha! Suit up!" Same goes for the sprawling "Do You Compute": Every shard of feedback, icy harmonic blast, and doomed-out power chord refers back to and revolves around Froberg's desperate repetition of the titular mantra.

So, could be it's the tunes. Opening an album with a song as bracingly great as "Here Come the Rome Plows" would be a shot in the foot for almost any other band, with its snakepit verses and a chorus that goes from balled-up fists to open arms and back again before you can take a breath. "Golden Brown" does the same in almost half the time. These more straightforward songs sting like snowballs packed with rock-hard chunks of melody, and in each case, Froberg's voice abrades the solid lines down to the bare minimum, and the band fills in the resulting space with pure venom. It's often easy to forget that DLJ were considered emo in their day; Froberg's howls of "Ready, ready to let you in!" on "Super Unison" seem like a sick parody of stylish vulnerability. Then the song mutates into a gorgeous, snare-drum rolling open sea, and everything you've ever liked (and still like) about this genre in its purest form comes flooding back."

(Brendan Reid, Pitchfork - February 14 2003)

YC: this isn't a vinyl rip, basically because I was too lazy to rip both an LP and 7", and also because I wasn't getting great quality on the recording - instead, it's the 9 tracks from the CD reissue rearranged and renumbered according to the vinyl format.

You can get the Swami reissue on eMusic here, and presumably fairly easily from Amazon, etc.: it's well worth getting, as it includes the Merge 7" ('Hand Over Fist'/'Bullet Train to Vegas') and an original version of 'Sinews'.

(click to see larger)

Editors - 'Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors' + 'Push Your Head Towards The Air'

Another month, another version of 'Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors' (the third so far). I probably wouldn't be listening to Editors if it wasn't for this song. I have their two albums, The Back Room and An End Has A Start, on CD now and they're pretty great (Back Room a little less so, perhaps, a bit too post-punk-retro in feel). Good, epic songs of which 'Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors' is probably the best - so the chance to get another version of the single, on clear white vinyl, was an easy enough one to jump at.

It's limited edition, too. No. 3509 out of 10,000. Wow!

The cover is the same as the first release, but metallic. The record inside is in a silver card sleeve and, like I said, is transparent white vinyl.

'Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors' 7" Vinyl #2: SKX93

Kitchenware Records, 2007.

1. 'Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors'

2. 'The Picture'

The A-side recording is as far as I know exactly the same as the album or other single version. My first post on it didn't really describe it, and the second just looked at how it worked as a live track. I guess I can't really talk about much more than the flawless, crystalline, high-pitched guitar which makes this song. There's more to it though, the cadence of the lyrics and the journey of the rhythm from opening to the build-up and the catharsis, all against which the guitar line is just a delicate if beautiful counterstroke. To analyze the song any further defeats the purpose of enjoying it, and doesn't help explain why I like it so much in the first place.

The B-side for the first version of the single, 'Some Kind of Spark', is pretty good, but this track is just beautiful. It has choral singing. Choral singing!

In fact, 'Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors' has a bit of choral singing on it too, a sort of round-up-everyone-in-the-studio-type affair (wikipedia/Smokers_Outside_The_Hospital_Doors#Production). But the singing on 'The Picture' hits from the first couple of seconds into the song, a constant tone laid down in the background of the whole track. A little like a Gregorian chant I suppose, except not really. And above that are laid the soft strumming of an acoustic guitar, the gentle interjection of its abovementioned 'crystalline' companion, and the gentle rise and fall of voices.

"Rest your weary head, close your heavy eyes

This last drink's on me, your smile shines on me

You look back at the picture and realise things then were different

It's not who you know, it's what you know then"

Download vinyl rip

______________________________________

The fourth single from An End Has A Start, 'Push Your Head Towards the Air', was due to be released on the 3rd of March, limited to 500 copies in all formats. The vinyl release had the B-side of 'Spiders' recorded live at the BBC Electric Proms, which sounded really interesting (the Electric Proms is an update of the classical music Proms to involve various big UK bands backed with a full orchestra). I inquired after getting a copy (before the release date, obviously) from Road Records but according to their suppliers "it was deleted on the day of release" leaving them unable to get a copy for me. Wikipedia now sez:

" All 3 formats of the UK edition of the single were limited to 500 copies each, all of which sold out through internet pre-orders before the release date, leaving many fans disappointed.

A 2nd 7" released by PIAS has appeared on the internet under the release date of date March 21, however no additional information has been given."

In the meantime, you can enjoy the rather excellent video for 'Push Your Head Towards The Air'. The stark black and white photography, slow-motion action, and the hair... it's really beautiful:

I don't usually look at the homemade videos on YouTube, but this guy has actually done quite a good, soft-voiced acoustic version of the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLEaPU8D6Aw&NR=1

The Crownhate Ruin: Vol. 1-3

one

'A Primer', 7" 1994

I haven't been able to find downloads of this single, but you can listen to two of the three tracks on the Crownhate Myspace:

"The Crownhate Ruin was a band from Washington DC from 1994 until 1996. We were something, alright.

The songs on this site are from our first two singles. They were transferred from the vinyl with very little enhancement -- a little cleaning, a little remastering; yeah, they could be better. That said, here's hoping you enjoy hearing them again.

Somewhere along the way we likely insulted you at one of our shows. We still stand by that.

best,

Vin"

'Last Place in Triage' is a fast, quite punky song. Not quite what you would associate with the Crownhate Ruin, except in a very early inception I suppose. It has a good deal of complexity though, and some stop-start mathiness towards the end. 'Present for President' introduces the quiet, hynoptic groove which is more recognizably Crownhate Ruin-ish.

The picture above was the best I could find of the cover for 'A Primer', although as you can see it's fairly simple and could be approximately reproduced without too much difficulty. What is interesting is where I found it, on a Japanese website called valsehot.com (named after a Clifford Brown/Max Roach jazz tune?). Apparently some kind of distributor/tour promoter - if anyone can read Japanese, maybe you can have a look at their reviews page and see what it has to say about a whole bunch of obscure emo stuff, including - and relevant to the Hoover Genealogy Project - 'A Primer', Fine Day, Admiral and the Boom/Sorts!

two

'Elementary', 7" 1994

Download

Download w/ Karate split

The second song on this, 'Pioneers', was featured here on the Hoover mixtape. There, I said:

"This track, 'Pioneers, takes the heavy, rhythmic part of Lurid Traversal and stretches it out and I guess explores it even more deeply.... Although it's kind of a straightforward post-hardcore by numbers song, it actually reminds me of Current/Indian Summer style emo, all crashing dynamics and mad, distorted crunchiness... plus tender whispering, of course"

Definitely more Crownhate Ruin-ish again than the first 7", although like I say with a certain shimmering quiet/loud emo sensibilty. Then again, it was 1994. 'Lessons in Thread', the first track, does the same thing as 'Pioneers' in a simpler, more abbreviated fashion. In fact the intro, before it opens up into the characteristically jerky Crownhate guitarwork, is an alluring piece of splintery emopeggio and a humming bassline. But it's 'Pioneers' that I keep coming back to, and the one early Crownhate Ruin track I chose to put on the mix... the heavy parts towards the end absolutely slay in a way that only the songs of the best 90s emo bands can.

The second download is exactly the same with regards to the 'Elementary' tracks, but is just an earlier archive I uploaded with the two tracks of the Crownhate Ruin/Karate split appended. Karate is not a band I know much about, other than they went on to be a bit better known and generally popular amongst fans of 90s post-hardcore/emo stuff. So if there are any fans of Karate out there who don't have this, here you are!

The Crownhate track, 'Visit to Mars' is good, a little lo-fi perhaps and one of their more impatient songs; and the Karate track, 'Cherry Coke', is good too, a nice grungey groove which goes some interesting places. Hell, I actually quite like this - consider them honorary members of the genealogy...

three

'Intermediate', 7" 1995 (vinyl rip)

From myspace tracks, to random mp3s of unknown origin, here's the real deal: the actual 7" of 'Intermediate'. And I didn't even have to eBay it, thanks to Dischord Records - this, along with the Until the Eagle Grins LP, was one of the two items I ordered from them online as reported in this post. So although the artwork stays pretty minimalist over the three volumes, you can view it in increasingly detail comprehensive detail. Click on the lower three pictures to see them larger; and yes, the centre of the record does say "NOTE To facilitate page turns, performers are advised to cut their arms off". Why, I'm not sure.

'Intermediate' was released jointly by T.C. Ruin (#003) and Dischord (#104.5). It has a higher number than the LP (#98) - which was released in January, 1996 - but was released the year before (according to Southern). Opening it up first, I was struck by how DIY it was. No card sleeve, just a folded-over printed cover slipped into a clear plastic sleeve, with the record in its paper sleeve inside both. I had practically disassembled it before realising how to get at the record! Of course, that's speaking as someone unfazed by anything more complex than a jewel case up until a couple of months ago. But still, it added some authenticity to it.

As one might expect, the two songs on 'Intermediate' sound the closest to the Crownhate Ruin sound of Until the Eagle Grins. This is clear from the opening chords of 'Better Still if they don't Know', followed by what are essentially drum fills but still sound great. Rhythms rise and fall, swelling into each other, guitars swoop down and general, tightly orchestrated mayhem ensues until it's time to break for a quiet part. In some ways 'Better Still if they don't Know' is quite like 'Visit to Mars'; as impatient, but tighter musically.

The energetic b-side, 'Every Minute's Sucker' is in fact on the CD version of the full-length. So in that sense, it naturally embodies the sound of that album: lots of stop-start dynamics; the momentarily plaintive vocals of Fred Erskine, off-key harmonies; and the characteristic demented drum tattoo of Vin Novara, combined with the scuzzy sniping of Joseph McRedmond's guitar - all wrapped up into that peculiar vortex of energy that is the Crownhate Ruin.

Dischord Records: Crownhate Ruin

Mclusky Singles - Pt. II

(Go here for the original post)

I

Two bands represent the best of Irish music for me at the moment - Fight Like Apes and Ham Sandwich - and I really like them both, but if I had to make the choice I'd have to go with Fight Like Apes because:

1) they are from Dublin and

2) they like Mclusky

Good news, then, that Fight Like Apes are coming back from their UK tour (before heading off to Seattle to record their first album) to do a short Irish circuit which will finish up with a gig in the Village with Future of the Left, on April 13th. Result!

In the meantime, head over to Clocked In - Punched Out for this post and cool video on Future of the Left (2/3rds of Mclusky).

II

Mclusky - There Ain't No Fool in Ferguson/1956 And All That

www.emusic.com/10799841

"A welcome return to Mclusky with a slice of deranged, inventive and skewered punk.

A stopgap release prior to their third album, said to be due out in September, this double a-side finds Mclusky in top form. Produced in Monnow Valley by Richard Jackson, its a slight progression from their usual jagged punk territory, but with all the best elements still in place.

Welded to a jagged razor riff, There Ain't No Fool In Ferguson is an unhinged, spitting rant clocking in at well under three minutes.

"If you can cope in this hopeless hepatitis piss-rag Molotov cocktail monobrow shithole, baby, then you can cope anywhere at all," snarls Andy Falkous like his independent American punk record collection depends on it. Whatever's going on in the collective head of Mclusky, it's based in a dark place indeed.

AA track 1956 And All That is slower, finding Andy Falkous screaming words about killing, with a kiss-off yelp of "Your son looks like Michael Jackson". Fantastic."

BBC Wales, Joe Goodden

Mclusky - Undress for Success

www.emusic.com/10909243

"We're sad to report that the recording of Mclusky's feverishly-awaited third album has been put on hold for a few months, thanks to a parting of ways with hard-hitting sticksman Mat Harding.

But Cardiff's premier band of sarcasm-heavy punk noiseniks have not let us down yet, and new single Undress For Success reaffirms that pledge with charmingly wonky style.

A cyclical, naggingly jaunty riff revolves over and over as frontman Andy Falkous barks out non-sequiters in a staccato voice that suggests a sergeant major on the brink of some very surreal madness: "Let's have Abraham for breakfast! Underexposed and dead wrong!"

It's a damn sight odder than the bracing rock roar of McLusky Do Dallas, but oddly addictive - so much so, that Radio 1's Colin Murray premiered by playing it three times in one show. A potential breakthrough disguised as a nervous breakdown, then: how typically Mclusky."

BBC Wales, Louis Pattison

III

I mentioned in relation to the previous 'No Covers' art post (itself a Mclusky reference) that I would post some original artwork of mine. The covers in that post were of course made from my own photographs, but not anything done by hand, exactly.

The piece above is a pen sketch I made of a photograph (the lazy artist's shortcut), of an iced-over stream in the Wicklow Mountains taken a few years ago. I like to think I was influenced by Japanese-style drawing - minimalist, suggestive; abstract(ed) yet communicating the 'essence of its subject. But my experience is that people don't know what I'm drawing in the first place (the top part is a lump of ice, and the lower a stream of water, by the way).

In any case, I decided to use the drawing as the basis for a back cover of the Mclusky singles. Each of them I bought legit from eMusic (hence the links) but that only provides a small image of the front cover and leaves the rest up to the imagination. One of the reasons why I chose this particular artwork was that it echoed slightly the very stylish Too Pure logo.

Below are the backs of each of the sleeves for the four Mclusky singles I've posted here: in order, 'To Hell With Good Intentions' and 'That Man Will Not Hang' from the last post; 'There Ain't No Fool in Ferguson' and 'Undress for Success' from this post. Let me know what you think; you can tell from the smudges, creases and odd marks that they are well listened to - and they even get that circular imprint from the disc inside, just like a real 7" cover!

***UNOFFICIAL ARTWORK***

Shooting at Unarmed Men - Girls Music (Promo Single)

Tomorrow I'll post part two of the Mclusky Singles post, but for now here's a nice little ditty (and genuine vinyl rarity) from one of the two ex-Mclusky bands (the other being Future of The Left).

Shooting at Unarmed Men began while Mclusky was still active as a band and shared the same label Too Pure, hence this promo single. The Wikipedia page on the band is a little confusing: band leader and former Mclusky bassist Jon Chapple emigated to Melbourne, Australia in 2006 and the band played "their last gig in the Northern Hemisphere on April 16th 2006 at Cardiff's Clwb Ifor Bach", which makes the date on this poster - from clwbiforbach.blogspot.com, 'Home to the Underground Promoter' - a little strange.

('Clwb Ifor Bach = Little Ivor's Club, named after a medieval Welsh nationalist rebel)

(I don't know about anybody else, but I find the Welsh language kind of cool. Maybe it's the small part of my genealogical heritage, or maybe it's the similarities with the Irish language - 'Clwb Ifor Bach' would be 'Club Ivor Beag' as Gaeilge)

Shooting at Unarmed Men represent one part of the Mclusky sound, with current noisemakers Andy Falkous's Future of the Left representing the other. It's what you might call a qualitative difference, and I'm not sure I can describe exactly what it is. Shooting at Unarmed Men take some of the more melodic parts and quirky rhythms of Mclusky, while Future of the Left and Andy Falkous represent the rawer, apopleptically vocal side. At least that's the way I understand it.

They both sound very much like Mclusky though - in a progressive sense - and that's the important thing. I guess it's a reflection of Mclusky's schizophrenia and unity through diversity that it could produce two qualitatively different and yet admirably representative bands; without being able to easily pigeonhole either of them as taking 'that part' of Mclusky's sound.

'Girls Music' is a great twisted pop song, with a good Pixies line in catchy rhythm and pieces of throwaway nonsense like "did you know your vagrance smells like tin" and the stinging refrain "I hope you like listening to music made for girls". Smooth bass, explosive guitar and vocals, and a high-pitched melody: just like your favourite Mclusky song all over again, almost.

'Weapons of Mass Reduction' is a little different; similar format perhaps, songwriting-wise, but scuzzed-out and compressed to an almost unrecognizeable degree. Mclusky always did like to combine pop catchiness with impressively abrasive, punky noise; and this is pretty much what's happening here, in a charmingly lo-fi indie way. Plus, the line "contrary to his take on time he he had been aware of himself physically for only three days" delivered in a mock-serious British tone always cracks me up.

Shooting at Unarmed Men - 'Girls Music' (vinyl rip)

Vinyl Inscriptions: Side A - "May the best loser win". Side B - "What are the odds of it happening twice"

Further Listening: 'Girls Music' was also released on Pure as a proper single, both I think with 'Weapons of Mass Reduction' as the B-side and with 'Pink Ink'; 'Girls Music' also appears on their debut album. Their second full-length, 'Yes! Tinnitus!' (shades of Regulator Watts there) is very much recommended; while a third, Triptych - a three-disc record; how punk is that! - has apparently been released in Australia.

Shooting at Unarmed Men on eMusic (incl. 'Girls Music' single)

Shooting at Unarmed Men - band website