Review by: Oli Saunders
I first heard ‘Driving Spain Up A Wall’ on the Level Plane ’80 Records and We’re Not Broke (Yet)’ compilation from 2005. Level Plane had a massive impact on me and I will forever be indebted to Greg Drudy for what he put out and the distro he ran. (Wow, did it really cease eight years ago?) Anyway, soon after I found a bunch of live videos of that song and it became one of my favourites of City Of Caterpillar. They had some amazing live sets and the beauty was the variance in them as the band experimented and modified their songs at will. I always thought it was a shame that they didn’t record it properly or at least release it on vinyl… fast forward to 2017 and they have done both, as they reform and go on a European tour.
The pros… it’s still a fucking amazing song. The build up, from the first quiet three minutes to the louder build up from then on. There’s plenty of incredible parts throughout; I personally love the drums at seven minutes and thereafter as everyone joins back in. The song flows so beautifully and its structure is glorious. Every screamo kid should hear this song!
The cons… it’s too clean sounding now – I love the raw aspect of this band and their live recordings hold up, and the LP has a fairly rough sound which works great. Just watch the freaking video at the bottom of the review – this is what it’s all about and there’s no need to make it sound so produced. And my second point – the vocals live and on other recorded output are amazingly intense, screamed or shouted for the most part. So it’s a shame tht they’ve toned it down here. When they come in a the six minute mark they are a little underwhelming, from both vocalists. They go for it more at the end but it’s still not what it used to be… a real shame 🙁
The second track ‘As The Curtains Dim; (Little White Lie)’ is one I’ve not heard before. It was originally recorded during the same sessions as the self-titled LP. It doesn’t feel like it with this recording, well until the four minute mark where the vocals kick in and some of the riffs do remind me of the LP. It’s really good from here on actually.
A bit mixed then. Hopefully they are still killing it live.
14th July 2017