Frodus
And We Washed Our Weapons in the Sea

Ok, I know. The band's name is really bad, but fortunately, never as in this case does the name not reflect the quality.

There are three of them, they come from Washington D.C. (which already isn't a bad place to be born for a certain type of music) and, like all the best things, they're already long gone (meaning they've disbanded). I discovered them by chance and recently, thanks to one of their songs covered by Thrice in their series of albums "The Alchemy Index". Don't like Thrice? That's even better, especially because they have nothing to do with them. Maybe it's because I got to know them quietly, but these three guys blew me away.

Active from 1993 to 1999, they should already be respected for being chosen by Refused as their 'opening act' (I hope that's the right term) on their European Farewell Tour in '98. But they deserve even more respect for their musical offering made of punk, math rock, and indie rock. If you're thinking of the usual nerds having fun with experiments, believe me, you're very wrong. If you're not familiar with the band, but especially the album in question, I'd describe it with a simple adjective: EVOCATIVE. This "And We Washed Our Weapons In The Sea" (which is a beautiful title in my opinion) stands out quite a bit from their other productions, mainly leaning towards a certain punk hardcore similar to Fugazi (experiments included). Here we also find more atmospheric sounds with a depth that half of the 90s indie bands can only dream of. So, I'd say it's all about depth. Depth that, for me, means having just that extra something to elevate a musical product from the sea of record releases; a listen that becomes almost a cathartic experience.

The ultimate example is the bomb track "Belgian Congo": a post-rock piece where in the final minutes, the 'song' form is practically overturned; or "The Earth Isn't Humming" (the track covered by Thrice): an atypical funky ballad with its dissonant and disorienting rhythm. To show they can also handle hardcore, Frodus crafts "Red Bull Of Juarez", a math rock assault with odd times, and pieces like "Year Of The Hex" where despair means inhuman screams. I've talked about record releases, but with Frodus, we're in full DIY style: cassette tapes, self-produced demos where audio quality is pure utopia, splits with obscure bands, and inexpensive live shows. Unfortunately, this policy led the band to change an impressive number of labels (to name a few: Carcrash, Fueled By Ramen, Magic Bullet, Tooth And Nail) and, above all, virtually zero visibility in Europe.

In conclusion, the Frodus are part of that group of 90s bands whose (super cool) mixtape cassettes kids used to make to accompany some amateur fanzine. In my opinion, "And We Washed Our Weapons In The Sea" is an underground gem worth rediscovering.

Listen to it!