Reviews

Record #810: Drive Like Jehu – Drive Like Jehu (1991)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

1991 has been called “The Year that Punk Broke.” The success of Nirvana’s Nevermind led record companies to make a mad dash to sign all the noisy, abrasive, energetic bands they could find, leading to some absolutely bizarre major label deals for bands like Melvins, Smashing Pumpkins, and Jawbox. DIY stalwarts Fugazi purportedly turned down multiple million-dollar deals.

One of the noisier bands to land one of those deals was Drive Like Jehu, whose sprawling math-rock/post-hardcore masterpiece Yank Crime was somehow released on Interscope.

But Interscope wouldn’t have been interested had it not been for the success of their self-titled debut, which lacks none of the fury or ambition of its follow-up.

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Record #808: Can – Tago Mago (1971)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Few musical movements are as weird, wonderful, and influential as Krautrock, a collection of West German bands in the 1970s that pushed the boundaries of what music could actually do to its extremes. The movement had an incredible influence on post punk, progressive rock, new age, shoegaze, and the birth of post rock. The shape of modern, electronic leaning pop music can be traced back to Krautrock, specifically the synthpop pioneers Kraftwerk.

But perhaps no band in Krautrock was more influential than Cologne’s Can, whose sprawling jazz-and-funk jams, improvised vocals, psychedelic exploration, tape editing techniques, and ambient experimentation went on to define Krautrock and influence everyone from David Bowie to Radiohead to Joy Division to the Flaming Lips to Kanye West.

Among their monstrous catalog (they recorded ten albums between 1969 and 1979), most fans and critics agree that the pinnacle of their career was the trilogy of records featuring vocalist Damo Suzuki, which includes the criminally underrated Future Days, the seminal Ege Bamyasi, and this, the eldritch, immense Tago Mago.

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Record #807: Binding Spell – English Basement (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Last year, I started writing for a music site called Tuned Up. While combing through submissions for review, every once in a while I’ll strike pure gold.

One of the heftier nuggets recently was English Basement, a piece of psych-rock tinged post-punk from Binding Spell. While this year has seen absolutely no shortage of albums written in and about quarantine (my own band is going to have our own coming out one of these days), bandleader Roger Poulin brings a uniquely personal perspective set to a soundtrack of wobbly basslines, dancy rhythms, and stabby guitars.

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Record #806: Amy Winehouse – Back to Black (2006)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

In the summer of 2008, three of my best friends from college interned together at their church. Meanwhile, I was interning at a church in a city about 45 minutes away. Throughout the internship, two of them tortured the third, Josh, by singing the hook to “Rehab,” drawing scoffs every time.

The following semester, Josh and I were roommates, and I had drawn much delight from buying records that would annoy or confound him. His look of disgust as he asked, “what is this?” was almost as rewarding as the music itself.

One day, hoping to keep the prank going, I bought a vinyl copy of Winehouse’s Back to Black. To my dismay, he joyfully sang along with every word of the track that tormented him.

I sold the record a few months later, but not before it got its hooks in me. In the years since, I have wrestled with the choice to purchase another copy over and over. This copy in particular was in the “Buy it Later” section of my Amazon cart for months before I accidentally bought it alongside a bottle of conditioner.

Accident or not, I’m glad to have it back.

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Record #805: Cursive – Burst and Bloom (2001)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

In my perception, Cursive has had two distinctive characteristics. The first is Tim Kasher’s conceptual and self-referential lyrics, which really came to their own on Cursive’s Domestica. The second is the presence of a cellist, which marked The Ugly Organ and their two reunion albums.

In that perspective, this is the first release in their chronology that really sounds like Cursive to me before my recent deep dive into their discography.

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Record #804: Cursive – Domestica (2000)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

On paper, it shouldn’t have worked. An emo concept album about a failing relationship loosely based on the singer’s own divorce doesn’t exactly sound like a formula for a hit record.

Lucky for all of us though, Cursive’s Domestica manages to avoid all of the self-indulgence and clunky storytelling that too many concept albums fail to avoid. Instead, it shows a huge leap forward in both Tim Kasher’s songwriting and the band’s musicianship, leading to an undisputed emo masterpiece.

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Record #803: Cursive – The Storms of Early Summer: Semantics of Song (1998)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

After their Crank! Records debut Such Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes, Omaha natives Cursive joined up with the then-burgeoning Omaha record label Saddle Creek. In a few years time, Saddle Creek would become a staple of the underground emo-ish scene, enlisting such bands as Rilo Kiley, The Faint, and Bright Eyes to their roster.

Now, when people talk about Saddle Creek, Cursive is always one of the first bands mentioned. But on their second album, released just five years after the founding of the label, Cursive was still building their legend alongside their new label. And while it might not be remembered as one of their best works, The Storms of Early Summer: Semantics of Song is an important chapter in their mythology.

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Record #802: Cursive – Such Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes (1997)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

I’ve been a fan of Omaha’s Cursive for quite a while. I picked up a CD single of “Art is Hard” from my local music store in 12th grade, and I spun those two songs on repeat for weeks. I downloaded several songs from Domestica on LimeWire and burned them to my one of my many emo mixes. Through my “serious music fan” phase in college, The Ugly Organ was one of the few emo records that I still listened to regularly.

But as much as I love those records, I’ve never dug too deep into their earlier material. That is, until I bought a box of classic records from my friend Stephen that included most of the Cursive back catalog.

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Record #811: Cold Cave – Fate in Seven Lessons (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

Let’s get one thing straight. As a subgenre, modern dark wave’s chief aim is to bow at the altar of New Order. The scene’s aesthetics pay homage to the British new wave pioneers with unflinching fidelity.

Throughout their career, Cold Cave has always been one of the most devout pilgrims. But nowhere is that more clear than on Fate in Seven Lessons, an album that, from the sonic palette to the album art, is largely a celebration of New Order’s classic second album Power, Corruption, and Lies.

Don’t get me wrong though: this isn’t derivative schlock. While it’s clearly referential (and feels like it was intended to be), enough of Wesley Eisold’s own voice comes through for it to be a rich and rewarding disc.

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