Labels: Bootleg
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Well, I can’t say I ever expected to own 2 of the 3 songs on here on vinyl. So a bootleg version will have to do. Despite the fact that “Bullyrag” skips like a hopscotch addicted 7 year old girl on my turntable, this 7″ kills me as assuredly as a razor to the wrist.
“250 Dollar Loser” and “Bullyrag” are from this bands split 7″ with Still Life. Wow. The former is fast and ragged, with forlorn vocals and messy guitars forming the melodies. Evergreen were the first band to learn how to make pop music and emo fit together as snug as can be. Except maybe the Hated. Evergreen had the right mix of instrumentation. The buzzing guitar, the forceful bass, the cymbal overload. And the vocals. The longing, desperate, beautiful, whiney tones. Few bands would ever figure out how to mix these two elements to such a degree. The Promise Ring understood for a couple of records. Maybe even the Get Up Kids for a few songs. None ever quite held the magic combination that Evergreen did. “Bullyrag” is unbelievably sad. It cuts me off at the knees. Everything fits together. Christie Front Drive are perhaps the only other band in this genre to ever piece the puzzle together and make everything sound so right. “Force Feed Ed” crops up on the other side, a track from a comp 7″ on Allied. It is tuneful, bassy, and sounds as good as this band always sounds.
Obviously I wasn’t buying these guys records when they came out, but that doesn’t stop me appreciating them. This is wonderful stuff and they came up with a formula that would be oft borrowed from but rarely equaled. At least now we have the Pine, a band who understands which elements of Evergreen made them so awesome. Now all that remains is for someone to reissue the Evergreen LP (the most morose, depressing, and downright gorgeous emo-pop album ever made) in all it’s glory.
Evergreen owns my heart. Wow.