#alex dunham

[spilladabalia]

Hoover "Electrolux" live

[hardcorefornerds]

Abilene - Two Guns, Twin Arrows lyrics

twisting the trinity- our father son of bad ways why take them back to play and watch over them steal their decency whats hidden hits back watch on them break the grip no life holds the pain cover saves no loyalty twisting on the trinity holy sons have fallen away hold onto no decency blanc fixe- summertime had come we sold the light as a giveaway autumns light had sung but she was kept at bay winters blight has bled into nights lonely cascade spring came and went without accolade nothing it is wrong we've danced our days nothing stands or stays we live out in our shame fitch- who ate his arms off in days of denial through decadence and weeks gone by he hates his harmful eyes in nights denial through cadence his last lie dead before he died the days light is bright nights light is right hold on tonite through a dead homes blight fitch took his life last night fellini- cant get it back from you your minds flight lay down if you want farther you glide what blank banter brought you back and to gain this time your motives have broken my back indifference fills your life can you hold yourself high? its your past you seem to lack nothing is louder then lies where the wrecks may lie your facades past them by flight the fight bilk and run no ardor inside go to hell to hide apache county- quiet light outside concho with the winds roll clears the sky when night falls the wind dies last night lucky said dark night under the sky right night to fly outside to fly alone clear sight i miss you phase four- sight of phase four past bonds backlit in time despite the ocean floor it rakes millions to make chloride my tears evermore behind vermillion regret the eyes for love of counterbore belies circuit and fable ties coefficient phase 4 decides partial pain not nothing more counting on 3 & 4 bring down bring back and sell your rites retool remain retake the lasting ruin solidarity- a black light has fallen fate outlined this morning inside we saw the bleeding with faith, outside we cried a black light has fallen retell the morning resell the time your faith's outside divisions been drawn and made justice with flags a-wavin', a stop-gap never seen patriot start selling a hollow unity

[hardcorefornerds]

Abilene - 'Fellini' from Two Guns, Twin Arrows

I want to write more on this album some time, but for this song - a second-half opener - I'd just like to point out that it's probably the closest thing on Two Guns to a Regulator Watts track with (Fred Erskine's) trumpet on top.

(lyrics here)

[hardcorefornerds]

Regulator Watts lyrics

Transcript of the Aesthetics of No-Drag lyric sheet as I was sent it:

the ballad of st. tinnitus- mother to the needle father to the bottle hope to the sound we follow only forever so the places sting the ring rings make the people sing candy bullet 0- hey boy a tall ride to the line 13 pegs to the state sign 95 at a standstill 7 minutes to go screaming wide and low put it down let it ride go get at the get go pemberton red- tiger unbeatable so tasted so sold again tiger unleavable 3 legged brass backyard stake me there i want it firecrackerjack tippy- an opposition to oneself martian through georgia dreck say reader needy the asunder no longer fonder anonymity has a number wrecked all about empire creates a stupor failed in compromise iced over dover mercurochrome- old grandads got my number sinking highballs hit me with it my mind blind at the same time singing to my own demise leftout if you roll it leftout to dry roll on 20th century ltd.- he rolls right in like a real american taking his fill given the chance he probably will he fits right in like heartland sin seedtick east- how deep's the mud on east seedtick? my blue star hangs low lum sad slow south lightning lucky blue star bless my head my home lightning lucky witchduck- high water in low tide bound and soaked burn in fire swim in fire hell waits on the wicked bent on fire huddled and red eyed you wicked kill hell waits this cycle's a sickle drown or burn hell waits death decides in river's no end this is your trial eleven- packed bags again let her stroll in stride out new towns full of scars mistakes badges she left road eyes know false idols (b.sullivan)- only seeing never holding they represented that success they proved there was access based on fear and reared like a nightmare too short was the ascent true wisdom disowned lost to the end they reared like a ghost reared it strong they bended not as real as it appeared to the end

[hardcorefornerds]

Visit Original Link

Regulator Watts - 'The Ballad of St. Tinnitus' from The Aesthetics of No-Drag (1998)

It can be difficult sometimes to figure out where really good guitar playing fits into 'punk' - especially in hardcore, but also and even post-hardcore - as a music of immediacy and no bullshit. Partly that's just a hangover from the prison of three-chord propaganda and a cultural distrust of indulgent noodling, but there's still a barrier to expressing admiration for something primarily in terms of virtuosity. Perhaps because on a technical level it can be outdone by other genres (particularly metal) yet what makes it great, to me as a punk listener, is actually something else additional and less quantifiable: I can't think of a better word than 'soul' (soul that is subjective, mutable and often historically/temporally contingent, of course). 

For many people, I know it is Fred Erskine's bass playing which makes Hoover, and I won't disagree - I just wish I had a better sense for rhythm to more fully appreciate it, rather than just a dim concept of complexity. In the later records of the genealogy, however, it is definitely Alex Dunham's guitar which has always stood out for me. Entwined within the twin-guitar shifting attack of Lurid Traversal, it takes the centre role in his later work. Three songs in particular never cease to captivate: the pure melodic earworm of '(312)' from Radio Flyer's In Their Strange White Armour, the deep and moody layering of Abilene's 'October' from their self-titled first album, and this one - arguably the most visceral, certainly the loudest, of them.     

There's a line in Lou Reed's Talkhouse review of Kanye West's Yeezus where he's talking about never thinking about music as a challenge to the audience - "you do this because you like it, you think  what you're making is beautiful" - and he describes his own notorious Metal Machine Music album as "if you like guitars, this is pure guitar, from beginning to end, in all its variations." I don't know if he's being entirely serious and honest - I haven't gone over the background to the album to divine evidence of the deliberate mischief one might suspect, but I don't really care either way - although I do quite like the record, as an experience. Actually, I misunderstood the statement at first not to be saying purely guitar (as I assume he means) but 'pure' guitar, which is a somewhat odd description of an album based on feedback and little or no deliberate melody. Distortion is technically impure as well, yet this is the song I think of when "pure guitar" as an overwhelming, metaphysical notion is proposed: 'St. Tinnitus' is aptly named for sanctified noise.

Of course, there's more going on than just Dunham's guitar alone. As is often the case, for a three-piece Regulator Watts bring a lot of noise and intensity. Bassist Cret Wilson (who doesn't seem to appear in any other band, Hoover-related or otherwise, although he is credited for the original Sea Tiger logo on the back sleeve of their album) underpins the wild squalls and swells of guitar with a steady rhythm that is mostly obscured, except when the screen of noise thins out to reveal it more distinctly. Around them the drums of Areif Sless-Kitain (who later went on to play in Bluetip, and is currently with this rather pleasing 'post-rock and psychedelic pop' project) dance with unpredictable yet precise shapes. The Aesthetics of No-Drag is an intensely spacious album, despite the apparent oppressiveness of Dunham's guitar (in songs such as this and bookending scorchers 'Mercurochrome' and 'Witchduck'), as it weaves its way in and around the groove of the rhythm section (the following track to this, 'Pemberton Red', is almost danceable!). Influences of jazz and dub, as in the rest of the Hoover family tree, abound on the record.

One of the benefits of getting back into my Hoover genealogy phase is remembering things I'd forgotten I'd had, like a transcript of this album's lyric sheet that another fan had sent to me in an email (I did unfortunately once have the chance of picking up the LP secondhand but missed it; however, I try not to be possessive about stuff like that, or at least not things I don't have). Anyway, it's supposed to be only a partial lyric sheet - Dunham once stating in an interview that he didn't like putting the pronoun 'I' down on paper - but it's useful in deciphering some of his tortured howls. Lately I thought I heard the phrase "lost my body to the music", which would be an appropriate and poetic reflection of the title, though not quite of the apparent theme of the lyrics. Instead I think it's just the repeated line "I lost my mother to the needle", as in the schema below:

mother to the needle

father to the bottle

hope to the sound we follow

only forever

so the places sting

the ring rings

make the people sing

"[I lost my] hope to the sound we follow": is that the personal statement expressing the nub of the emo catharsis, the 90s D.C. (and Chicago) sound; the soul of post-hardcore?