Vinyl Vednesday 1/5/2011

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. This week’s installment celebrates the best of 2010. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: Bars of Gold’s Of Gold (2010) on clear orange, Crime in Stereo’s I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone (2010) on clear, and Smoke or Fire’s Prehistoric Knife Fight seven-inch (2010) on black.

Place of Purchase: Actually, only two of these were purchased – CiS and SoF came from Interpunk.com. Bars of Gold came from the band’s publicist.

Thoughts: Bear Trap PR has always been good to me. Case in point: I got a limited pressing of Bars of Gold’s semi-self-titled debut. Made up of former members of Bear vs. Shark, the group essentially updates that beloved group’s sound and adds plenty of Modest Mouse-y twists. This record was a joy to review, and a real scoop too. I get high off of breaking great new bands, and debuting Bars of Gold to the Org crowd was awesome.

I’m still a little shocked by the break-up of Crime in Stereo. They wrote some of the best post-hardcore tunes. While their shows got a little hit or miss near the end, they were a band I felt compelled to watch as often as possible, thanks to a passionate songwriting that walked between melody and dissonance. They get compared to Brand New a lot, but honest, CiS had the better discography. I’m still holding out hope – the guys did break up almost as many times as, say, Sunny Day Real Estate. But for now, I have to settle for spinning I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone and screaming along to “Type One” and “I Am Everything I Am Not.” Oh, and, uh, Drugwolf forever.

Smoke or Fire sort of, kind of, maybe broke up somewhere between 2007 and 2010. But they announced their return with an onslaught of new material. Joe McMahon dropped two releases March 16, 2010 – an acoustic split with The Lawrence Arms’ Brendan Kelly and this fine seven-inch. It’s a lot rawer than what eventual full-length The Speakeasy turned out to be, which I respect and enjoy. Mostly I’m just glad to have the boys back.

Vinyl Vednesday 9/8/2010

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. This week’s entry is based around rarities compilations. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: Crime in Stereo’s Selective Wreckage (2008) on black and white, Jawbreaker’s Etc. (2002) on black, and My Bloody Valentine’s Before Loveless (1991) on black and clear blue.

Place of Purchase: Hot Topic. Repo Records. Grass Roots Music Store in Ocean City, N.J. In that order.

Thoughts: I’m a huge Crime in Stereo fan, and I’m still mourning their break-up, but at least they went out with a solid discography. I can’t say much about Explosives and the Will to Use Them, but The Troubled Stateside, Crime in Stereo is Dead, and I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone are all amazing post-hardcore records. Crime in Stereo has left behind a stellar catalogue. What they haven’t left behind is a whole lot of rarities. B-side collection Selective Wreckage is awfully skimpy – 10 tracks in 23 minutes, and one of ’em is an instrumental intro. While it may have been prematurely released – I’d love to hear what went on during the Describe sessions – it still contains some of my favorite CiS songs, like “When the Women Come Out to Dance,” which jumps from one punishing hook to the next.

Jawbreaker, however, received a thorough rarities collection back in ’02 courtesy of drummer Adam Pfahler. He’s always been protective of Jawbreaker’s legacy, going out of his way to preserve the band’s releases. Etc. is packed with choice cuts, like “Kiss the Bottle,” which is probably one of the most overrated Jawbreaker songs despite being so obscure. Then again, it’s overrated for a reason. “Kiss the Bottle” sums up everything great about JB – being alone even when you’re with someone, drunk as hell, and having only some very dissonant, thundering chords to sum up how that feels. The rest of the collection is great too, delivering a bevy of Dear You outtakes before Pfahler was able to convince Geffin Records to let him re-release that album. “Caroline” is another early gem, as is the cover of R.E.M.’s “Pretty Persuasion.” Fans of the Unfun years are well-fed by this compilation.

My fandom for My Bloody Valentine continuously grows. Loveless is one of my favorite albums of all time, so much so that it’s led me to check out the band’s entire canon. While nothing tops the sheer weight of Loveless, it’s still fun hearing how MBV evolved from a bunch of horror-punks to shoegaze originators. Of the MBV rarities collections available through Lazy Records, Before Loveless is the better overview. It reveals the group’s debt to bands like the Birthday Party and Jesus & Mary Chain in their early years before evolving into a more twee group. By the fourth side, you can hear the waves of Loveless lapping not too far away.

Versus: 'The Troubled Stateside' v. 'Is Dead'

[Versus pits two of an artist’s classic albums against each other even if they’re stylistically different, because that “you can’t compare apples and oranges” bullshit is for people without balls, spines, or all those other things that separate us from the villainous jellyfish.]

If my cousin hadn’t died just a few days prior, Crime in Stereo’s dissolution would have been the worst thing to happen to me this August. As is, I haven’t had much time to process the break-up, what with all the shit going on around me. So here’s a belated attempt to memorialize them. They were one of my favorite contemporary hardcore bands. Each of their last three records is a scrapbook of where I was in life during their respective release dates. Nate Adams and I still text each other “Drugwolf forever.” And man could they bring it live. The shows got a little hit-or-miss near the end of the band’s run – the songs kept getting more and more technical – but when they were on, Crime in Stereo delivered some of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. If nothing else, their low priced merch inspired Eric Crack and I to coin the phrase “Deal in Stereo.”

With all due respek to this year’s I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone, the two CiS albums worth debating over are The Troubled Stateside, which represents the band’s hardcore pinnacle, and Is Dead, which marked a sharp turn into more atmospheric post-hardcore/alternative rock territory. Old school versus new school. Stateside was my introduction to the band, and it’s unquestionably the best release from their traditional hardcore years. The guitars crunch, the drums obliterate, the hooks are huge. There’s a reason why just about every CiS show from the last four years ended with “I, Stateside.” That song is so amazing and carries such a strong note of finality. And it’s not the only “hit” – “Bicycles for Afghanistant,” “Sudan,” and “Abre Los Ojos” all confident, catchy rockers. “Gravity/Grace,” meanwhile, is a powerful ballad about abuse. But overall, this is one rockin’ collection.

Which is why, when writing about it at least, I feel like I should Stateside as the superior album. I mean, these songs are amazing and they killed live. I can’t say that about the Is Dead material. It took a while for CiS to master that material – I remember them hitting wrong effects pedals when they first started debuting new songs when I saw them play Villanova University. And frontman Kristian Hallbert flubbed a ton of notes when CiS opened for H2O at the Trocadero back in 2008, a full year after Is Dead’s release.

But I still pick Is Dead as the best Crime in Stereo record. It’s so perfect that it took its creators years to actually master it. Guitarists Alex Dunne and Gary Cioni continually developed their playing style, and while you can hear them tinkering with sonics on Stateside songs like “I, Stateside,” it’s on Is Dead that they became this behemoth. That said, the band was just as defined during this period by Hallbert’s huge voice.

Thanks to Is Dead, Stateside actually sounds a little empty to me now. It’s not as well produced, which I get, but the guitars just aren’t as fulfilling. Dead can get pretty atmospheric at times, but it still rocks. It garnered a lot of comparisons to Brand New’s sonic evolution at the time, which is fair, but I’ve always preferred to rank them with Thursday. They don’t sound alike, but both acts took hardcore and tried pushing its boundaries by incorporating elements of shoegaze, goth, electronica, etc. They applied moody elements to a muscular genre to create something brooding and alive. I put on Is Dead and I hear a record few have equaled.

Of course, I love both records. Shit, I’m wearing a Crime in Stereo shirt right now as I type this sentence. But if I had to pick the band’s all-time greatest release, the one record by which they should be judged and remembered, it’s Is Dead. Because of the way Hallbert screams on “Small Skeletal.” Because of the giant continuous hook that is “Choke” in its entirety. Because it’s just really fucking good.

DRUGWOLF FOREVER.

Crime in Stereo - 'I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone'

Three years after reinventing their style on Is Dead, Crime in Stereo returns with I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone, an album that doubles-down on the band’s sonic ambitions and dares fans to keep up. Ignore the dubious title and got-damn horrendous artwork, cut straight to the music, and you’ll find a slinking, atmospheric juggernaut awaiting. In some ways, it outdoes Is Dead’s ideas, becoming more atmospheric, more dissonant, more willingly un-hardcore. I remember a lot of people calling CiS too experimental circa 2007. Three years later, the band makes seemingly “experimental” numbers like “Choker” and “Third Atlantic” seem like outright pop songs.

A lot of folks have compared CiS to Brand New, which is accurate in a vague way. Both Long Island bands dealt in conventional kid-friendly genres (pop punk, hardcore) before moving on to something darker, more ethereal, and more complex. That’s where the comparisons end, though. Brand New seemingly burned itself out on last year’s Daisy; Crime in Stereo is still burning with ideas.

If there’s a slight against the record, it’s that it’s way less hook-filled. Even the catchiest songs, like “Drugwolf” and “Not Dead,” pale in that regard when compared to, say, “I, Stateside” or “Sudan.” Rather, this is an album built on guitar textures. Guitarists Dan McCabe and Matt Markosy outdo themselves on this outing, jumping from quiet, contemplative strumming to demonic squalls, sometimes in the same song in the case of “Young.” It’s not poppy, but it’s still compelling stuff all the same.

While the album peters out near the end – “Dark Island City” is like a whisper, while closer “I Cannot Answer You Tonight” lacks the final punch of “Choker” or “I, Stateside” – I Was Trying delivers plenty of success before that. There’s the daring, dissonant tones of “Exit Halo.” The enticing intro of “Queue Moderns.” The bombast and desperation of “Type One.” Last album, Crime in Stereo reinvented itself. For a follow-up, they went further down the rabbit hole and came out new again.

Vinyl Vednesday 2/24/10

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it kinda is. This week’s installment is Crime in Stereo-themed, in celebration of their new album I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone. As of this writing, I haven’t heard it yet, so it could suck for all I know, but at this moment, it’s my most anticipated album of 2010, along with Against Me!’s White Crosses. As always, e-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: Crime in Stereo’s The Trouble Stateside (2006, although the album wasn’t released on vinyl until 2008) on white, Love (2007, although it’s actually the vinyl version of the 2005 EP The Contract) test pressing on black, and Crime in Stereo is Dead (2007… no really) on black with white bursts that look like stars (!!!).

Place of Purchase: Stateside was purchased at the band’s show with Fake Problems at the Moose Lodge in Doylestown (R.I.P.), although I can’t recall the date. It was before FP dropped It’s Great to Be Alive. I got Love when the band played a hardcore show at Villanova University – yeah, I don’t know how that happened either. Is Dead was obtained from an actual store – my beloved Repo Records.

Thoughts: I love Crime in Stereo. I’ve seen them a bunch of times in church basements and VFW halls… and one time at the Trocadero when they opened for H2O. My infatuation with them began when they played the Lansdale VFW back in 2006. Just to show how great the scene was “back in the day,” I pretty much only went to the show because I had nothing else to do that night, and the cover was like $6 or something. CiS’ live set was solid, so I picked up Stateside and, over time, grew to love its every line and lick. The band later jumped from Nitro Records to Bridge Nine, who gave Stateside the vinyl treatment. I just realized at the show I bought this at was the last time I saw the band live. They’re playing The Note in West Chester, Pa. this Thursday with The Menzingers.

Speaking of CiS shows, the Villanova show managed to be both super-crappy and super-awesome. My roommate Eric and I drove out to ’Nova to catch CiS and came away with two new terms/phrases: “Mook-core,” which we used to describe all of the chest-beating, machismo-leaden opening bands, and “Deal in Stereo,” because CiS had some great merch offers. Shirts were like $10. And they were selling test pressings of their new/old EP Love since the finished version hadn’t shipped yet. One of the band members was actually embarrassed about this, which I never understood. I scored an extremely limited pressing of a great EP, featuring the always welcome/hilarious “Long Song Titles Aren’t Cool Anymore Because the Rest of You Fuckers Are No Good at It.”

Is Dead was such a game-changing album in my eyes. When B9 sent me a promo CD of it, it rotated from my computer to my car stereo for like a week. As is my way, though, I wanted to get it on vinyl too, because clearly I have no plans for the future. Besides, I like B9’s vinyl. Dead looks and sounds beautiful, and the label didn’t go overboard with color variants. I hate when companies put out like 20 versions of the same album and makes 19 of them rare. It turns collecting into a chore. Anyway, Dead is the band’s finest moment (so far), combining hardcore with all types of melodic and ambient guitar textures, resulting in something moodier but still rocking. Just as the title hints, this is the sound of a whole new band.