I Hate Our Freedom - Seriously

I've seen a handful of I Hate Our Freedom shows over the last year or so and they have grown on me a good deal. Initially I liked them a lot more on paper. Of all the ex-bands the members of I Hate Our Freedom tenured in (including Texas Is The Reason, Thursday and Milhouse), I was the biggest fan of Garrison, and their singer Joe fronts IHOF (do I smell t-shirt logo rip-off) so things bode well. They were the best I've ever seen them opening for Samiam at Santos, so I picked up Seriously and its been getting more than average play at JS-NYC HQ. I think mostly because its just short of twenty minutes long. That's not a diss. In fact it's pretty refreshing to hear some older guys who know that there is no need to overstay their welcome. The closing track stretches things out a bit into a Jawbox meets Bluetip rideout that is pretty bad-ass, but the lion's share of the tracks are under two minutes. I Hate Our Freedom certainly seem to play their fair share of solid bills with bigger touring acts, but if one doesn't arise, Seriously looks to have me seeing them headline next time they play. Keep track of their whereabouts here and pick up Seriously here from Mightier Than Sword Records.

Live: Ink & Dagger with Primitive Weapons @ Brooklyn Party Expo 8.12.10

As the handle may evince, I am all too aware of the double-edged sword that is being on the scene. As I approach old age, my desire to seek out shows that you can only get the address from mysterious websites or message boards or however hipster spread the word about these things. Much of what little desire I had to be one of those in the know was soundly quelled last year when Thorns Of Life were an active entity. The number of red herrings about shows, as well as the fact that they maybe weren't so up to the hype and that I had to go to damn Philly to see a Brooklyn band put whatever pretentions I had towards sporting a white belt and bad haircut on the shelf.

You can imagine my dilemma when Eric mentioned Ink & Dagger were going to be in town and playing at some DIY space in Brooklyn. The fact that the singer was dead was intriguing, even moreso when it came to light that Geoff Rickley from Thursday was manning the mic in his stead. Then it became a coincidence, as I realized that Thursday and Ink & Dagger are both bands that I like much more without their singers. That insensitively pointed out, once we found that it was promoted both by Brooklyn Vegan and Vice it seemed prudent to get there stupid early, as it was bound to be a madhouse.

Brooklyn Party Expo is an old party supply storefront way out on Broadway. By the time I met Eric out there, he had had just seen the Ink & Dagger dudes and could confirm that the six of us were the only people there. A couple/three rounds later we posted up and caught most of Primitive Weapons set. Bands set up on the floor, a move that I admire from a populist (and vertically blessed) perspective, but still find kind of silly as it guarantees that unless it's Lamb Of God or Pennywise or some other band with a giant in its ranks, 3/4 of the crowd won't be able to see the band. Combine that with the sound system of the average DIY venue, and you can see how/why that scene can be so frustrating. Brooklyn Party Expo is a good space, and truth be told, the sound was pretty good for a storefront. I can't say I found anything memorable about PW, but save for the less that Philly-sized crowd, Ink & Dagger brought it. Rickley simply cannot carry a tune in a bucket, but the rest of the (original?) band brought some serious Philly hardcore. The band has wisely opted to go without the makeup that typified the late period McCabe I&D lineup. They opened with The Road To Hell, and despite the lack of theatrics it was off to the races for the next half-hour or so. I wasn't the hugest fan way back when, but there is a point in a weekday evening when you've had a couple beers and being tossed around a room isn't so bad. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to go out of my way to see Ink & Dagger, and still question the Vice connection, but this is one of the few reunion shows that came close to living up the hype.

R

Thursday - Common Existence

Thursday are from New Brunswick, NJ. Together with My Chemical Romance, they represent the most successful of the bands that came from the heyday of that city's fertile basement scene, releasing five full-length records since 1997 on labels like Victory and Island. Common Existence is their latest and newest release and their first for Epitaph.

If you have followed Thursday through the years and aren't a sixteen year old girl (or perhaps boy, now that I think about it...) you have been struck by the Thursday conundrum: how can the music be so good and the band so successful with a singer who pathologically cannot sing in tune. Tom Waits is an Irish Tenor comparison, and Thursday singer Geoff Rickley is without the benefit of the Waits charm. Or mystique. Most of the lyrics are wincingly high school, but maybe I'm aging out of the Epitaph demographic. Either way, Cher uses less auto-tune than Rickley. The spoken word parts don't do that much for me, either, but zillions of suburban 'punks' dig them, so what do I know.

Vocals aside, Common Existence does have some great moments. The riffs that drive 'friends in the armed services' and 'you were the cancer' are top-notch and Tom Keeley definitely deserves a lot of credit for keeping things interesting in the Thursday camp. Dave Fridmann is behind the boards again for Thursday, no doubt giving a host of Fredonia's finest ample practice comping vocal tracks.  He adds some interesting textural elements and keeps the Thursday sound as big as we've come to expect it. It's a little bright and shiny for my tastes, but it sure is some ear candy. Not really my thing, but if your idea of good political punk bands are Rise Against and Anti-Flag, Common Existence should be next on your list of records to get stat.

R

Thursday/Envy split

This split on Temporary Residence had been rumored to be in the works for a while. It seemed a pretty ballsy move on Thursday's part from where I'm sitting. I had a brief intense love affair with Thursday around the time of their second record, but I got over them pretty quick. Envy I was late in getting into, but the last three or four years have featured a lot of their records on the JS-NYC hi-fi. Thursday are a decent band, but they aren't in an Envy class by a long shot.

This split is a pretty nice feather in the TRL cap. I guess Thursday kind of hold their own musically. Geoff's voice was the thing that killed the band for me. It was just a little too whiny in the wrong kinds of way. To be fair, I often wonder if I understood the Envy lyrics whether it would be the same kind of deal-breaker. Tetsuya Fukagawa has more of a guttural tone than Rickley's screech that comes off better for me. Believe me, I know how many of you (ha!) feel differently. Envy just seem to be farther ahead. On some next level shit, if you will. They are a maelstrom of sound and beauty that knows few peers. You'll need to look no farther than the cover to see it in black and white. The dove that is the Thursday logo is in the foreground, but the tornado behind is a more than apt metaphor for what you're getting from the Envy franchise and why New Jersey's finest pale in comparison.

There are seven songs on the split, three from each artist; the odd track beng a remix of one the Thursday tracks by Anthony Molina of Mercury Rev that's decent enough, but seems more like a desperate attempt to level the playing field by Thursday. Yes, I am a dick. Either way, the Thursday stuff is tolerable and the Envy is exceptional. You should buy it here from Temporary Residence. If you happen to be a collector nerd, you can get some tasty screen and colored vinyl selections as well.

Thursday can be contacted here, Envy here.

R