Record #711: American Arson – A Line in the Sand (2020)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Last year at Audiofeed, I accidentally found myself spending an awful lot of time near the American Arson merch table. They were situated in the shade right between the main stage and the impromptu stage where many of my friends (and my own projects) had claimed slots, and so as I killed time between sets, I talked a fair amount with Jesse and Evan, the only two members of American Arson.

When the time came for their set, they had already described  their sound to me, but descriptions alone could not have prepared me for the blistering onslaught of hardcore energy, lush walls of sound, intricate compositions, and singalong choruses—pulled off by two people using a combination of live loops and samples.

But as their recent full length proves, their appeal goes far beyond the spectacle of watching them build these songs live. A Line in the Sand captures every single element that drew my ear to them in the first place—both musically and personally.

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Record #710: June of 44 – Four Great Points (1998)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

In the mid 1960s, a bunch of rock and roll bands discovered free jazz, and their minds were blown. The resulting explosion would lead to psychedelic and progressive rock, as seen in bands like The Byrds, King Crimson, and The Beatles, among others.

In the 90s, a similar movement happened with hardcore and punk bands experiencing similar mind-blowing revelations. Themselves inspired by jazz, Krautrock, and proto-post rock like Talk Talk or Bark Psychosis, they twisted the crashing catharsis of their native genres into what would be known as math rock (which is very different from the twinkly finger tapping that is called math rock today).

The most noted example of this shift is post-hardcore outfit Slint’s 1991 album Spiderland. But that album (or the mixture of influences that created it) was the forerunner of a much larger scene. And after Slint’s dissolution, June of 44 may have been one of the most respectable standard bearers for the movement.

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Record #710: Circus Trees – Sakura (2019)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Among music snob circles, teenage girls are a common punching bag.

Musicians with largely young, female audiences are relentlessly mocked. The tween fangirl is a common caricature of vapid music listeners. Overly sentimental love songs are often dismissed as trying to hit the 13-19 female demo.

But if teenage girls are so lame, how can the teen sisters in Circus Trees rock so hard?

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Record #709: Dashboard Confessional – The Swiss Army Romance (2000)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

While The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most was one of the albums that kickstarted my emo phase, The Swiss Army Romance is the one that cemented it. While I probably gave each of them equal play time in my Discman, Swiss Army was my clear favorite.

True, the two albums have nearly identical aesthetics, and the songwriting is of the same quality across both discs. But there’s something about the completely stripped down sonic palette of Swiss Army that makes these songs more effective than the full band treatments that would fill the track lists of later albums.

Dashboard’s main appeal was its rawness. These songs are almost too intimate to invite anyone else into, begging to be sung (or screamed) entirely on one’s own. And apart from a couple background voices, this album offers that rawness in a purer form than the project would ever attain again.

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Record #708: Blushing – Blushing (2019)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Last year, I caught the crest of the hype-wave for Blushing as it was cresting. I listened to it on Spotify, fell in love, and upon finding that the vinyl was way out of my budget, I put them away, trying to forget about them. That is until this week, when my friend Rob included it in an order of cassette tapes from his label, Friend Club Records. So now, I get to fall in love with this record all over again.

I know what you might be thinking—does this guy really need another shoegaze record? And it’s true that for many of the trend-chasing bands in the so-called shoegaze revival scene, the most important part of the genre is the aesthetic. Sometimes, it seems like these bands would rather have an excuse for guitar fuzz or reverb pedals than offer songs with any real compositional fiber.

And truth be told, I love a lot of those bands. I will gladly sit through forty-five minutes of pedalboard demonstrations put to wax, and then I’ll buy it on vinyl. I’m easy to please.

But while Blushing might often get mentioned in the same breath as a lot of the say-nothing revivalists, they don’t just hit the aesthetic of shoegaze. They have the songs to back it up.

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Record #710: Man Mountain – Infinity Mirror (2018)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

One of the things I love about vinyl is that the medium allows additional space for creativity. I don’t often talk about packaging on this blog, preferring instead to talk about the music itself, but it’s one of my favorite things about records.

In fact, it’s one of the reasons I started collecting vinyl in the first place—even before I was convinced of the sonic superiority. There are things that a packaging job can do to enhance the aesthetic of an album that a digital copy of the artwork simply can’t. Die cut sleeves, spot gloss, colored vinyl, post cards, etc.

But Infinity Mirror has one of the more interesting packaging jobs I’ve seen in a long time. This pressing is released on a picture disc that, when spun on a turntable, creates an animation.

And even though I haven’t been able to experience it with the same success as that video (I still haven’t figured out the optimal frame rate), it’s not a complete loss, as the music is really enjoyable anyway.

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Record #707: Cloakroom – Further Out (2015)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Speaking of Bobby Markos…

Despite the fact that Cloakroom are the standard bearers for the amp-blowing, doom tinged slacker shoegaze that I love so much (see also: Lume, Greet Death, True Widow), I don’t listen to them too often. Yes, I’ve seen them live. Yes, I already owned two of their albums. But I didn’t seek those out as much as I happened upon them.

But recently I realized how dumb this was. I’ve loved every Cloakroom song I’ve ever heard. I know they’re great…why do I always forget that when I go to choose a record?

Upon that realization, I intentionally sought out Further Out, their genre defining 2015 full-length. Five years without this disc was too long.

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Record #706: Baroness – Blue Record (2009)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

My love affair with Baroness wasn’t an immediate one. Even after becoming a fan, it took me a while to be fully convinced.

But delving into their back catalogue the last few months, I have realized that they are one of the best bands around. Despite the diversity of their sonic palette, everything they do is absolutely untouchable.

This realization has bid me to systematically buy my way through all of their albums, which brings me to The Blue Record, their wonderful second record.

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Record #705: Native – Orthodox (2013)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

The Northern Indiana/Southwestern Michigan music scene is an interesting beast. While my hometown of South Bend is the de facto center of it, we’re close enough to other cities that bands that are born out of towns within an hour drive from us end up cutting their teeth in Chicago or Indianapolis or Grand Rapids instead.

Sometimes, this leads me to discoveries of local(ish) bands that I didn’t even realize were somewhat local to me (see also: Lume, Locktender, Cloakroom).

Earlier this year, I had the similar realization (or reminder, rather) that the mathy, heavy post-hardcore outfit Native were also localish (from Michigan City, but played mostly in Chicagoland).

It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise—after all, Native is fronted by Bobby Markos, the bassist of the aforementioned Cloakroom. And while his rumbling, heavy bass strings are a through line between the two bands, that’s about where the comparison ends.

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