You know me: I'm not the world's biggest punk and/or noise rock fan. But I don't make the stupid mistake of never listening to the genres because, like any style of music, there are always gems waiting. This year, it was mostly Deaf Club's We Demand a Permanent State of Happiness that caught my ear. Several people on staff were raving about the album so I thought "what the hell" and spun it on. The somehow upbeat chirps of opener "Nihilism for Dummies" got my instantly hooked and from there, the bubbling energy, crazy strong dynamics, and extra saucy drumming kept me coming for more.
Therefore, when the opportunity to run an Anatomy Of for this raucous group of folks came a-knocking, I took it without hesitation. The end result is an amalgam of kick ass bands that run the gamut from cult classics to albums I've never heard about but can't wait to dive into now that I am aware of them. Enjoy and make sure to check out the album itself; it's a whopper.
Scott Osment - Deaf Club (Drums)
Mice Parade - Bem Vin Vontade
I was in the process of writing a double drummer black metal project with my friend Camacho when he showed me this record. Camacho is a drummer that I love and appreciate in so many ways and we decided to double drum jam to potentially start a new band that never came to fruition. While playing together for hours we stopped to hang out and talk about the project and life in general over some drinks. We were going back and forth about art and music when he said, “wait, I have to show you this.” So he set up his PA system late at night to blast ‘Nights Wave’ and it was his presentation and love for it that impacted me so profoundly that it became one of the most important records in my life. It’s very drum-based music while being extremely melodic and interesting. The compositions and instrumentation inspire still 10 years after first hearing this record. Their entire discography is impressive, but this album holds a special place in my heart.
Brian Almatitano - Deaf Club (Guitar)
Sonic Youth - NYC Ghosts & Flowers
I’m fuck heavy with Sonic Youth. I used to show up to shows hours before they would even show up for soundchecks. Just to ensure I’d be front row. To be a witness. I watched everything they did, carefully. I used to tune my guitars in all sorts of fucked up tunings that probably ruined many a guitar neck in my youth. I photographed their pedal boards and every guitar they switched from during songs (I have tons of setlists with tunings and guitar names for each song). They taught me to think outside of the basic parameters of the guitar. It’s not necessary to play the strings as a stringed instrument. The guitar can be percussive. You don’t have to strum it. You can play it with tools. You can destroy them and still create a song from the feedback. It became a limitless instrument. There are too many albums I love of theirs. Simply put I love this album for two reasons. William S Burroughs created the artwork for it. Kim Gordon’s line “Boys go to Jupiter, get more stupider. Girls go to Mars become rockstars.”
The Nels Cline Singers - The Giant Pin
I first heard Nels Cline’s guitar work on the Wadada Leo Smith & Henry Kaiser tribute album to Miles Davis called Yo Miles! Slowly but surely I was able to catch him live with other projects. Banyan (Mike Watt, Stephen Perkins, Willie Waldman) was first and then later on with Wilco. His guitar work could be equal parts abrasive/angular punk and or bopped out jazz while he still managed to throw in tons of odd pedal effects. I mean the tension he creates, the sounds, the looping and sonic manipulation is always amazing.
Giant Pin has so many elements layered into it - from free jazz to electronics - that it just blows me away every time. It’s got all these ugly jazz chords that I just love. I had to figure him out somehow. I had to analyze his style. How can someone blend all of this together. It doesn’t hurt that the players are all phenomenal. Devin Hoff and Scott Amendola are a huge rhythm section that ebb and flow together like tides controlled by the moon - natural yet constantly changing incrementally. Jon Brion and Greg Saunier feature on the record as well which is a huge indicator that this record is pretty damn near flawless. There are so many rhythms and sounds to mine for inspiration to me. Between Nels Cline & Sonic Youth the angular art punk Jazzmaster sound became something I sought out in my own music throughout the years. Thanks Nels.
Justin Pearson (Vocals)
I was fifteen or sixteen when I got the LP. I was well versed in both the works of John Reis and Rick Froberg with their various projects leading up to this album. However, there are about five albums on this planet that have shifted the trajectory of my life. Yes, this is just music, but it not only communicated to me in ways that I can not explain, it showed me ways to navigate the concepts of music, and understand both the practical and impractical things that are linked to music and art in general. I hate comparing things, but fuck it, I will. To me, there was a shift in what is considered punk. And yes, there is punk and there is punk rock. I'm just talking about punk, with all of its aesthetics and the non musical elements that are just as relevant as the music itself. There was Minor threat, which had a member in Fugazi.
That leap from punk rock, to the broader realm of just punk happened there. Fugazi had all of the elements that were needed for a sort of much more pivotal and substantial entity in the realm of art. It embodied righteousness, swag, attitude, social commentary, and so on. Well, for me, Drive Like Jehu was very similar with its sort of musical blueprint, however the music that they created has been birthed from San Diego, and it seemingly spoke to me directly, with taking the general thing that was Fugazi, but jacked it up, gutted it, and then proceeded to drag it into the world full of 90's anxiety, reckless innovation, a lack of guardrails, and under the guise of a city that is a military clusterfuck, a transient tourist city that had very little support for the arts, and a community that was forced to rethink the past and use elements that were alien to others to function and make art relevant. From start to finish, the self titled album is a journey that stands the test of time. Again, there are only a few albums that have achieved that and remain alive. This is one of them.