Labels: Day After
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This is actually a 1998 reissue of an old Jules 7″, so I can sneakily review it here. Hurrah!
For those who are blank on what this band were about, you’re missing out! Their album on Ebullition / Bloodlink is like, incredible. And this 7″ is their best material I’ve heard outside of that and the track on the Old Glory comp. What they did was expand on the Drive Like Jehu sound of frantic rock with screamy vocals, and just emo everything up a bit. The singer is forever going “Aarrgh! Oh, ohhhhh! Waaaargh!”, and it’s pretty affecting stuff.
“Second Song on a Saturday” is on the a-side, and it opens up quite subdued, before bringing in those oh-so desperate vocals. And thus. Not long later, everything starts spiralling out of control, grip is lost and it’s the end of the world… Guitars really groove, and you can’t help but rock back and forth or spazz out as they pile on the chaos and the hurt. “Aiii! Arrrgh!!”. Mesmeric.
The sister track is “Kathy”, which kicks in with some slow, grinding guitars, breaks into light twinkles and carries on in that vein, with those eerily off-key sung vocals this band have. Typically, the lyrics are very depressed and sad. As the singer gets more tearful and screamy, it absolutely tears at your heart. And it’s not long till they are once again bringing in the end of world emo special. I Hate Myself have a lot to thank this band for.
Some of the most influential and vital emo of the last decade, get all their stuff now, before someone issues a double cd discography. Heh.