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I don’t often find myself wandering the web in search of new bands to listen to. Maybe a friend suggests a name, or you're scrolling through the list of suggested YouTube videos while once again injecting into your veins the song you've been listening to relentlessly for months, soon to be sick of it. But due to a lack of time and a bit of laziness, you never delve deep. Strangely enough, every time I've dived into something completely new with a little inspiration (perhaps that's the key, it's all a matter of inspiration), concentration, and desire, I've always made sensational discoveries. Few, selected, privileged moments, but good ones. Very good ones. These guys with the unpronounceable name are no exception.
The setting is the Washington post-hardcore of the mid/late '90s, almost orphaned by Fugazi. Indie (already perfectly shaped for quite some time in Albion by its loyal post-punk standard-bearers) is heavily evolving, along a path that only a few years later will lead to global success. Even overseas, things are proceeding similarly. New insights, new solutions, more and more ferment. Add to all this the last gasps of grunge, the doctrine of Slint, just the right amount of math-rock, and a drummer who seems like a ninja. This is the musical humus. One of its most colorful buds is this record.
Without mincing words, it blew me away. Especially what appears to be their most well-known song (and there must be a reason for that, right?): "The City." To get it, just put everything I mentioned before into a nice blender. Then press the start button. In reality, the entire work is an impeccable amalgam. An indie manifesto, a "must-have" for any alternative library. As I said, blown away. After all, the in medias res beginning of "A Life of Possibilities" gives you absolutely no room to escape. In no time, you find yourself catapulted into an atmosphere that vaguely reminds you of Foals. Then, suddenly, granite-like guitars close the piece. They catch you off guard, and you don't even notice it. After the first three pieces, it feels like you're at a party (with very few people, but all in the right place at the right time) where you already know you’ll have a blast. I could then mention the electronic episode of "You Are Invited," another fine effort. And still, songs that resemble actual templates used on a large scale by the majority of "party" indie that marked the entire first decade of the new millennium ("Back and Forth"). But a work like this doesn't deserve track by track. Because it’s predictable. And we are faced with something that is not predictable. So go ahead and listen. Let yourself be swept away by the enthusiasm, the energy, the variety, and the sweat of this crazy crowd that bounces you left and right while you try to firmly hold your beer in a desperate attempt not to spill it on the new shoes you bought just the other day. Unless, of course, you're already completely drunk.
It rocks, sounds current (it’s from '99) and is ahead. In the sense that others are behind, panting and with their tongues hanging out.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 Memory Machine (02:43)
Red wire: right temple
Black wire: left temple
Red wire: right temple
Black wire: left temple
There are times I think eternal life ain’t such a bad gig
Smoke all you want and see the planets
If and only if they find a way to cure the longing
The distant panic
Someday, I’m telling you
They’ll make a memory machine
To wax our hearts to a blinding sheen
To wash away the grief
Someday, I’m telling you
They’ll make a memory machine
To wax our hearts to a blinding sheen
To wash away the grief
There are folks that say to have a soul you’ve got to suffer
Well lately I’ve had my RDA of that
And call it fascist but I know that someday happy
Will be all that matters
Someday, I’m telling you
They’ll make a memory machine
To wax our hearts to a blinding sheen
To wash away the grief
Someday, I’m telling you
They’ll make a memory machine
To wax our hearts to a blinding sheen
To wash away the grief
Poetry, Aldous Huxley—yeah, yeah, yeah, it’ll be a relief
If they can make machines to save us labor
Someday they’ll do our hearts the very same favor
The wails of ruined lives brought to a halt
By the serene hum of computers in air-conditioned vaults
Red wire: right temple
Black wire: left temple
Red wire: right temple
Black wire: left temple
04 Spider in the Snow (03:50)
The only thing worse than bad memories
Is no memories at all
From the age of 20 to 22 I had five friends
None of whose names I can recall
And as I would walk down K Street to some temping job
As winter froze the life out of fall
Yeah, I must’ve been having a ball
Different scene outside your window now
Same VCR, same cats
Different people at the very same job
Similar alley, different rats
The trash goes out on a Tuesday now
You got to make a note about that
Yeah, this time you’re where it’s at
You can’t say it but I know that it’s in there
You don’t know it but I know that you’re scared
Obvious and lonely—a spider in the snow
Now you find the very same pit still yawns
Deep down within the very same gut
The very same ghosts still seem to haunt you down
Down those lines you always tried to cut
You thought you just might need a little change
And now you find you got nothing but
How can a body move the speed of light
And still find itself in such a rut?
You can’t say it but I know that it’s in there
You don’t know it but I know that you’re scared
Obvious and lonely—afraid to not let go
You can’t say it but I know it’s in there
You don’t know it but I know that you’re scared
Obvious and lonely—a spider in the snow
08 Gyroscope (02:29)
She's wearing too much lipstick tonight
A little black dress a little too tight
Tries to make small talk but it drips with spice
She knows that he's coming, it's really all right
Nobody here could know how she feels
Not getting drunk and she hates wearing heels
Tries to stand but the room seems to bend and reel
Her friends all keep asking why can't she just deal
If she spins fast enough then maybe the broken pieces of her heart will stay together
But ain't no gyroscope can spin forever, yeah
If she spins fast enough then maybe the broken pieces of her heart will stay together
But ain't no gyroscope can spin forever, yeah
He says it's over, it's such a release
It's finally happened and he's making his peace
The reminders don't bother him in the least
The Jekyll and Hyde shit will finally cease
His eyes on fire and his hands kind of shake
Like his voice is ready to break
You kind of wonder how long this boy's been awake
Or just how much less sense one person can make
If he spins fast enough then maybe the broken pieces of his heart will stay together
But ain't no gyroscope can spin forever, yeah
If he spins fast enough then maybe the broken pieces of his heart will stay together
But ain't no gyroscope can spin forever, yeah
Happiness is such hard work and harder every day
And it can kill you, but no one wants to be that tacky about it
If you spin fast enough then maybe the broken pieces of your heart will stay together
But something I see lately makes me doubt it
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