Labels: slowdance
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This here is a comp of a bunch of bands mainly from the mecca of original and interesting music that is San Diego, all playing live tracks at a 2-dayer in some venue. And this is how diverse it is:
- Electric Nazarene – well, it’s old style rock music, played with big thick riffs and all that. depends on your tolerance for rock music. i can live with this kind of thing, it’s pretty fun. the guy goes: “THANKYOU VERY MUCH!” at the end and you expect a stadium roar to break out. instead, a couple of people clap
- GoGoGo Airheart – i’m not sure what this is. bass driven and quirky, it’s short and doesn’t really go anywhere
- Volume 11 – “Hi! We’re Volume 11, titanic massacre from hell” says a friendly sounding man. then his band start playing. if the first few seconds fail to physically kill you, then you cheated. this is fucking insane. supersonic paced hardcore with wrenched, screamed vocals as well as some very wobbly sung vox. this is total san diego, oozing antioch arrow and angel hair all over the place. i didn’t know it was possible to play this fast. i want a record. pure chaos, you read me? ex-members of honeywell
- the Roots of Orchis – i presume this is to soothe you after the assault of the aptly named volume 11. soothing, mellow, blissful, lots of drumming, electronics and keyboards. if you like euphone, you’ll like this. i do. chill out, maaaaan
- Jejune – jejune are out with a couple of new split 7″s, reviews as soon as i get ’em… anyway, i don’t recognise this one so i guess it’s either off the jimmy split or is new material. kicks off as pure indie pop with arabella’s lovely vocals, before building into those soaring, driving rock parts they have. i am tempted to say it sounds a bit like roxette at that point, but that is being cheeky. i love jejune, they are they are destined to be one of the last great emo rock bands, and this is a fine song
- Yaphet Kotto – uh, my favourite band at the minute. here they contribute a song that gets kind of lost amidst some muddy sound in the live environment. it’s a bit different to the album material, but is still obscenely bruising emo hardcore. good screamo vocals, it’ll floor you with it’s intensity
- Sterling Silver – have now split up. emoey indie pop like jejune and rainer maria, a bit slow to develop, and nowhere near as good as either of those two. not too bad though. guitar solo reminds me of superchunk
- Oma Yang – pretty cool kind of emo / indie rock instrumental type thing that you think is building up to a point when someone is going to sing. but as soon as it reaches it’s peak in terms of speed, it calms down again. it doesn’t remind me of anyone in particular except a touch of american football in the slowest parts. nice and atmospheric
- Camera Obscura – more instrumental noodling featuring a keyboard. it builds up to a pretty noisy level fairly quickly. supposedly have an ex-member of swing kids. don’t expect any similarities, but this isn’t at all bad
- Physics – ok, more instrumental stuff. very moody and eerie, but nothing spectacular. has some nice electronic fx
- Get Hustle – some kind of free jazz music with funny rhythms and piano. if you like the weird stuff at the start of that swing kids song, you might like to investigate. i might be right in saying “ex-member(s) of Antioch Arrow”. it certainly sounds that way
- Sunday’s Best – hey there Christie Front Drive wannabe! this is a band severely influenced by the Stereo album all over. the fact = no one can intentionally emulate CFD, they were too special. don’t even try. this is a very pretty song in places, but SB try and rock it too much at times. damn, the singer even mumbles his words. still, i like it, and it’s the best CFD impression i’ve ever heard
- Vile Maxim – sound nothing like CFD. starts off slow and heavy, then goes fast and crazy. grindcore i presume
- Reversal of Man – are amazing. this song hints at the kind of intensity that must go on in their live shows. it’s a version of the song from the 10″, and features lots of fast spastic hardcore, lots of screaming, and you ought to check them out. ends with a couple of seconds of an acapella version of their minor threat cover
- the Blackheart Procession – ooh, breaks in with some organ. this is pretty boring though. very slow, strange vocals. not my cup of char
- Boilermaker – what? this was recorded on August 1, but I am sure that this band had split up before that? are they back together? help! ah, it’s hard to tell based on what the guy says after the crowd ask for more and he tells them they only practised 10 songs. oh well. this here song is great, replete with that groove that they often work in so well. in my opinion, the ‘maker are easily one of the elite emo rock bands of the late 90’s. you owe it to yourself to check this lot out if you like this kind of stuff and have yet to do so