Gone Dead Train - American Buffalo
I know fucking nothing about this hey. And I hate the term 'alt country'. Some of them were in that band Order of the Dying Orchid. Apparently they were around sort of 05/06, changed their name to American Buffalo, split up, couple of the dudes are now in a band called the Cinnamon Band.
All I do know is I can't stop listening to this shit.
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=f0af379cc9071c941686155677bb268588ca1e7dea60a69b
Monday, July 27, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
humming to a dead song
Welcome the Plague Year - s/t LP and extra songs
Recently I've been feeling pretty fucking old. And realising that I care about the 'screamo' thing and the way it's changed and shifted over the course of the last nine or ten years because it was the first hardcore thing that I was in almost right at the start of. To have actually been, I dunno 'there', whatever that means beyond listening to the records (not much probably) to see the way it's changed from this violent, urgent spasm of hardcore that was pissed off with everything else in hardcore, to this thing it is now is what's making me feel old of course.
Movements in punk rock always begin with that initial urgency that's probably never going to be re-created. They are, after all, usually a reaction to a time and place. But they can set a template within which some amazing music can be made. Calvary weren't reacting to the same things Rites of Spring were, but they took what was established and built their own thing off it.
When the Welcome the Plague Year record came out I checked it out, thought 'hey this is really' cool and didn't listen to it that much. Combination of a couple of things really; crappy car stereo and just not being in the mood for that sort of music anymore. A friend said at the time 'we're all getting a bit burnt out on chaotic screamo' when talking about how good this record was and yet how he didn't really listen to it. He was right.
I still play shows with 'screamo' bands and in that hessian $kramz whatever scene. To some extent. But I feel like there's less to identify with there than five years ago. Not so much a matter of no substance as...different substance I guess? I don't know I've always been more about lyric sheets at shows and long photocopied essays in LPs than wacky song titles and vague or confusing art statements (not that those two don't have their own appeal). In fact I look at the attitudes of a lot of people compared to when it started and I'm like 'but...you're the people I came to this music to get away from'. Arguing about it, I'm realising, is pointless. Instead of provoking discussion you're just accused of wanting everyone to think like you do, and being told to just 'enjoy the music' like the substance was somehow able to be seperated. Well maybe it is for people who have a different experience, that's cool. And in attempting to define the politics of a 'scene' or something I find myself sounding more and more like the crimethinc regurgitating punk fest anarchists I can't fucking stand.
So when you get old and a thing changes to this point, what do you do? I can understand why a lot of people move on, why noise music is so filled with people who grew up on hardcore punk. And hey we all always move on but, and maybe this is totally stupid and sad of me, I feel like I also need to hold on and keep doing the things I did. The format is established than you can work with in and hey you're not going to sound like the 'revolution summer' LP but you can at least be making music as passionate and intense, and as about something, anything, as that time and place that inspired you.
And bands come along and do that. This Ship Will Sink. Sinaloa. Majorca. Circuits. Quebec (the story of how I hated them up until the last few shows when I really paid attention to what they were doing, especially Tim's lyrics, is another post in itself). Takaru. Former Fucking Republics. Welcome the Plague Year are like that too. I have this feeling that maybe in five years people might realise how incredible this band really was, based off this collection of songs. This is one of those records that sounds like an ALBUM rather than a collection of songs. In fact when I only had the LP I wasn't really sure where one song started and another ended. The recording, the sound of it, the bits of noise and the lo-fi guitars and reverb drenched production all combine to lend an incredible atmosphere to the record. It's like some sort of apocalyptic crust record, or even Slint's spiderland, in that it's just plain fucking creepy. It's a scary, dark, heavy record that sounds like all the fucked aspects of 21st century human life that the two vocalists were singing about. It's like the soundtrack to William Gibson's future. It's a fucking unbelievable album, one I, you, we, should all listen to more.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
godspeed you corrupted wolves in the throne room
new band me, rob and raddy are doing. Can download our first recording there.
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