The Past Presents « Knox Road

[The Past Presents] Unrest – “Perfect Teeth”

The Past Presents revisits revered albums from the past 20-25 years to ask the question, “Is this album still a classic, or has it lost its edge over the years?”. Was it a great record for that particular time and place, or is it something we’ll be passing on to our kids? It also looks at the “lost classics” – countless albums that should have earned more attention but for one reason or another fell through the cracks.

I think most avid music fans can document the highs, lows and even the mid-ranges of their lives by pointing to a specific artist or album that is synonymous with a particular event or period of life. These albums typically stay with you for years, remaining a part of the fabric of your life story. For me, Unrest’s last album, Perfect Teeth, will be forever linked to my four years in college. Perfect Teeth, along with a handful of other standouts, kicked open the door to a whole new world of music that never surfaced in the small rural town I called home. This album was released in August of 1993, just as I was entering my sophomore year. As a freshman I’d discovered the Garden of Eden that was the Washington D.C. indie-rock world. In addition to Dischord, there were labels like Simple Machines and Teenbeat, helmed by Unrest front man Mark Robinson. Among these three labels nearly all of the regions’ best bands found a home.

While Dischord was home to the punk and hardcore acts, Simple Machines and Teenbeat took care of the indie-rock bands. As all three labels grew, Simple Machines and Teenbeat started to add bands from out of the immediate D.C. area, but you always knew that these labels were committed to the music of the Washington D.C. region. It seems a bit crazy now, almost 20 years down the road, that two labels of such prominence could pull from the same indie-rock pool and both do so well. I guess that speaks to the number of quality bands in D.C. at that time. Another factor was the labels had very distinct personalities. Simple Machines embraced a more serious, earnest brand of indie-rock, while Teenbeat tended to align themselves with more playful, and sometimes adventurous, bands. I did and still do hold both labels in high esteem, but they were very different animals to me.

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Jesse

[The Past Presents] U2 – “Achtung Baby”

The comparison of music, particularly specific albums or songs, to mile markers on the highway of life is an apt one. It’s exceedingly easy to trace your life’s path just by looking at your record collection. It’s all there: the highs and lows, memorable moments, moments of high accomplishment, and periods of boredom and depression, preserved for all time by the music that scored those moments. In my own experience, U2 found a place on many of life’s mile markers; but, since its release, Achtung Baby has been more like another passenger in the car than just another mile marker. U2 first cropped up for me in 1983. I remember hearing “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day” on the radio seemingly every time I got in the car. Soon “Pride” was also a fixture on every car ride. It went on and on. U2 were always there, lurking around the edges, always slightly out of synch with me. I liked the band, but it was mostly the singles that stuck with me. I was, without a doubt, a greatest hits fan when it came to U2.

Everything changed in the fall of 1991. At this time I was starting my senior year of high school. My friends and I had been obsessed with music since middle school and we showed no signs of stopping. That summer of 1991 we’d logged many hours at the local record store and spent many more hours pouring over video tape of recent episodes of 120 Minutes (for those too young to remember, this was an MTV show that played videos from alternative/indie/punk bands). I remember being slack-jawed the first time we saw the video for Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” When that video ended I knew this band from Seattle had just changed something for me. What I didn’t know was that I would have that feeling again just a few weeks later when U2 released the video for “The Fly,”the first single from their new record, Achtung Baby.

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Jesse

[The Past Presents] Post-Rock Revisited, Part 1: Rodan – “Rusty”

The first half of the 1990s was undeniably a high point in the history of indie rock. While grunge exploded into the mainstream, the indie world played host to a myriad of sounds, some new, some modern adaptations of previously mined genres. Punk experienced a renaissance with a new generation taking the reigns and breathing new life into hardcore and even pop-punk. Indie-pop saw a host of bands offer new takes on the college rock sound pioneered in the late 70’s and most of the 80’s. Perhaps most interesting and, in my opinion, most significant development of the early 90’s was the maturation of the post-rock sound.

While in many ways genre labels are kind of difficult to deal with due to their inherent ambiguity, looking at the definition of post-rock gives a starting point. The term was defined by English music critic Simon Reynolds in 1994 as, “using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords”. The guitar, the centerpiece of rock music for decades, escaped its conventional roles and found new life as a rhythm instrument, sometimes percussion instrument, and at times taking over the role played by vocals in the traditional rock blueprint. Post-rock did similar things for indie-rock as free jazz did for the jazz genre twenty years earlier.

There’s no shortage of classic post-rock albums. With many of the traditional rock barriers removed bands were more inclined to explore less traditional expressions of their music. There was a broader acceptance of instrumental bands, jazz-rock albums, and experimental electronic-rock hybrid albums. Through all the experimentation there were still bands that stuck with a guitar-heavy rock sound, but had a penchant for more complex rhythms and timing changes, often referred to as math-rock, a kind of sub-genre of post rock. In this category one of the all-time greats was Rodan. Part of a robust Louisville, KY scene, Rodan, fronted by Jeff Mueller, later of June of 44 and Shipping News, and Jason Noble, also of Shipping News and Rachel’s was a rather short lived four-piece whose lone album, Rusty, remains a classic record. Rusty is a powder keg of an album, filled with overblown guitars and jagged rhythms that leave the listener exhausted but ultimately satisfied.

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Jesse

[The Past Presents] R.E.M. – “Monster”

It is a sad but true fact that greatness often outshines mere excellence. Did you ever know a family of extreme overachievers? Take the example of a highly successful couple who raised three sons. The first-born son attends Oxford, earns two PhDs, and goes on to be a highly regarded scholar and writer. The second son gradates from Harvard and becomes a ground-breaking research physician. The youngest son graduates from Duke University and starts a successful sports management consulting firm. Taken individually all three would be considered successful; however, when placed side by side, the youngest son pales a bit to his older brothers. Such is the case with R.E.M.’s 1994 album Monster.

Monster’s big brothers Out of Time and Automatic for the People are undisputed gems of the R.E.M. catalog, showcasing the band at the peak of their abilities. These two albums show R.E.M.’s complete mastery of the pop song while also crafting their most polished lyrics. Monster took a different turn. While R.E.M. lit up the airwaves with “Losing My Religion,” “Shiny Happy People,” and “Everybody Hurts”, the rest of the early ‘90s alternative rock scene was deeply ensconced in fuzzed-out grunge and driving guitar rock. Looking back at Monster, it seems that this album was a reaction to the trends of the early ‘90s.

So, was Monster R.E.M.’s desperate attempt to stay relevant in the face of changing tastes? I don’t think so. In 1994 R.E.M. could have released Out of Time 2 and it would have sold millions of copies and had every critic under the sun searching for new adjectives to describe the band’s genius. Instead, I think Monster was R.E.M.’s attempt to reinvent themselves. Monster was to be a reworking of the band’s sound while they were at the top of their game. I believe that Monster was supposed do for R.E.M. what Achtung Baby did for U2. This album was supposed to kick open the door to a new realm of creativity for a band firmly into their second decade. Unfortunately R.E.M. failed to make a landmark album here because they didn’t blow the whole thing up and start fresh. They simply swapped their clean guitar and well-placed mandolin sound for overdriven guitars and effects. Monster fails to be the seismic shift that Achtung Baby was; and as a result Monster was viewed by critics as a good album, but not a great one. Fans bought millions of copies of the album, but after a few years it was regarded as the dog of the R.E.M. catalog. By the start of the new millennium, Monster was a staple of bargain bins everywhere.

I recently dug Monster out of my local bargain bin, wondering, 17 years since its release, if Monster remains bargain bin fodder, or has it blossomed into a bargain bin treasure?

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Jesse

[The Past Presents] Badly Drawn Boy – “The Hour of Bewilderbeast”

Debut albums are special. A theory I consider whenever I first play a debut album is when you play that album you could be getting the first-step album, the starting point album, or the big-bang album.

The first-step album is typically a solid effort that leads to bigger and better albums. The first-step record is typically considered a fairly pedestrian debut when compared to the bands future work. A perfect example of the first-step album is Radiohead’s Pablo Honey. That was a pretty good record when it came out, but listen to it now, in the context of Radiohead’s current catalog, and it’s certainly the weakest of the lot.

The starting point album is a debut that is great and leaves you wanting more. With each new album the band gives you pretty much more of the same. Some records are a little better or a little worse than the preceding efforts, but really everything is pretty status quo… see Mudhoney’s self-titled debut and their subsequent albums. Everything is pretty solid, but in the end they never really deviated off the trail set mapped out on their first record.

Then comes the most interesting and most tragic, the big-bang record. This is the debut album that is so good you can barely contain your enthusiasm. You hear this record and you want to buy copies for everyone you know and a few people you don’t know. The tragedy comes into play because typically the big-bang album is so good the artist spends the better part of their career trying to top their first record. Critics compare every new release to the first, no matter how long ago the big-bang was released. The big-bang album explodes leaving you blinded by its greatness and thereby missing the lesser albums released in its wake, even when they have quite a bit of merit. George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass…. I’m looking at you.

Damon Gough, known by most as Badly Drawn Boy, released one of the most notable big bang albums in recent memory. His 2000 debut album, The Hour of Bewilderbeast, was huge news before the album reached shelves. Critics were already dripping with praise for this album; Bewilderbeast was going to be the album of the year, album of the decade and possibly the album of the new millennium, depending on who you asked. No need for a Grammy ceremony, Badly Drawn Boy should just take them all and save every one the trouble. Upon its release it was obvious the critics were right, The Hour of Bewilderbeast was outstanding. It was clear then, as it is now, that this was one of the first classic records of the new millennium.

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Jesse

[The Past Presents] Teenage Fanclub – “Songs From Northern Britain”

Like the short kid stuck in the back row of the fourth grade class photo, Teenage Fanclub quietly lurked around the fringe of the hugely popular bands of the 90’s, trying to squeeze themselves into the picture. Their name was known, but they never got the same recognition as their contemporaries. Radiohead and […]

Jesse

[The Past Presents] Guided By Voices – “Bee Thousand”

Editor’s Note: We’re proud to announce a new feature here on Knox Road, titled “The Past Presents”. Author Jesse Croom will be a regular contributor to KR with this column and a column about cassette culture (coming soon!). Essentially, The Past Presents explores the importance of context. It revisits revered albums from the past 20-25 years to ask the question, “Is this album still a classic, or has it lost its edge over the years?”. Was it a great record for that particular time and place, or is it something we’ll be passing on to our kids? It will also look at the “lost classics” – countless albums that should have earned more attention but for one reason or another fell through the cracks. Enjoy.

Halloween night, 1994 was an ugly scene. I was packed into a club called Tattoos in State College, PA waiting anxiously for Superchunk to take the stage. Butterglory and Guided By Voices opened the show and from the moment Guided By Voices hit the stage I hated them. I knew them only by name, not by reputation. I had yet to hear their new album, Bee Thousand, but the buzz surrounding it was deafening. When they stumbled to the stage all I could see were a bunch of wasted 30-somethings standing in the way of what was sure to be an amazing Superchunk set. As the band launched into their first song, Robert Pollard, dressed in his captains jacket and button-down oxford shirt, started cutting loose with some high kicks and inspired jumps. The set continued and I remember being stunned by the brevity of the songs and by Pollard’s energy on stage. It was about that point that Pollard fell backward over the drum riser, slid off the back of the stage, landing on his back with his legs reaching into the sky. Naturally, he never missed a beat. I was disgusted with their antics, but I was secretly smitten.

Released over 15 years ago, Bee Thousand is still wrapped in hype and surrounded by legend. In short, Bee Thousand is considered a classic. The question now, is Bee Thousand still an important record? Is it still a classic?

In 1994, the year of Bee Thousand’s release, there was a strong punk and indie-rock scene all over the country. People starting bands in the early 90’s grew up with punk rock and were taking the DIY philosophy of punk and applying it to their own music. Guided By Voices had been recording and releasing their own music for years leading up to Bee Thousand and had nearly given up on the band several times. Luckily, they held it together long enough to release their masterpiece. There are not many albums in the last 25 years that “changed things”, but Bee Thousand definitely did.

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