Fuckin’ Record Reviews wishes a belated Happy Birthday (by one day) to TARA KEY!
FORCED EXPOSURE #9 Winter 1986 (page 86)
ANTIETAM review by BYRON COLEY
As Byron sez: “Antietam does tender a kind ‘o pop, but it’s a coarse, skewed cousin o’ the beast w/nothing in common w/the Feelies other’n a shared repsect for the VU’s gtr sound.” Yea!
Attempts at ranking art are foolish. There are so many great sonic practitioners in every domain during all eras, that such attempts at defining the best make no sense. But we’re nothing if not fools for love here at Fuckin’ Record Reviews, so rank we will. Subjective? Of course. Biased? That’s the whole point. Let’s drop any pretense of neutrality. The best guitar slinger of the generation covered at Fuckin’ Record Reviews is…TARA KEY!
But don’t take our word for it. Spend some minutes viewing this dazzling YouTube video of Tara playing the “Star Spangled Banner” - Jimi Hendrix version - for Public Radio International’s Studio 360 in 2010. Even though Tara’s playing can be off the hook, her playing here is more subdued, affectionate and discreet, but equally very moving.
Say what you will about PRI’s and NPR’s and WNYC’s domestication, they did feature Tara, so we’ll cut them some slack (but just a little).
Although Antietam are not as well known as we’d like, even by people who say they dig YO LA TENGO, they are awesome and sound like no one else. Antietam are also well represented in the digital realm. Their web page antietamtheband was dutifully maintained until 2012, chronicling their still-happenin’-history very well. At some point last year they switched to a wordpress site called The Antietam Weekly Reader (which is great too).
As everyone who cares to know already knows, Antietam are from Kentucky. The blogger at Left Of Left Of The Dial must’ve been quite enthused when he launched his ode to Antietam (and fellow Kentuckians ELEVENTH DREAM DAY) with “The Antietam/Eleventh Dream Day bundle starts at 1069 Bardstown Road, a tale laid out in loving detail on Noise Pollution’s unbeatable Bold Beginnings: An Incomplete Collection Of Louisville Punk 1978-1983 comp. For this is a story about Kentucky, and as Abraham Lincoln realized, ‘I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.’ He must have also known that art damaged combustion is not confined to Ohio alone.”
That Lincoln quote is discussed at The Journal of Abraham Lincoln Association site (Volume 13, Issue 1, 1992) in the paper ”Abraham Lincoln and the Border States” by William E. Gienapp.
Back to Antietam, or as OuKast sing, “anyway…But, anyhow…,” the blogger at Left Of Left Of The Dial concluded his ode to Tara and Antietam with this: “Tara Key is the premier rock guitarist of her generation. She’s a wicked southern rock maestro stitching zen twang into punk demon invocation with élan. How many can pull that off in a tenth life? No slight on Tim Harris or Josh Madell; it’s just natural for a guitar player with TK’s gift to garner gapes and awe. But, this is a band after all, so let us praise the explosiveness of the unit. 2007’s Opus Mixtum may be their Music To Eat, but Tenth Life is, well, the great record made after Music To Eat, which Hampton Grease Band never made anyway. Antietam has made that record. Tara, Tim and Josh have been playing together for 20 years, at least, and it seems they can churn out their peculiar paeans to southern desire at will. Tim’s ability to foreground wired fish lines while Tara haunts the space inside, all the while peeling it back, with Josh playing it just right, occasionally leaves me with a chill in the best way possible. It’s a treasure. When “Better Man” hits that first dip – so I aim my arrows right at you – I catch my breath. Such a rush sometimes comes about while immersed in the first COME record, so do with that what you will.” Okay then!
Tim Harris has been Tara’s partner in Antietam since before Antietam. Josh Madell made three around 1990/1991…and it’s been that way ever since.
Speaking of Yo La Tengo above, did you know that Tim & Tara and Ira Kaplan & Georgia Hubley were almost all in a band together? Yea, like Fleetwood Mac! Jess Jarnow said so in his excellent 2012 book on Gotham Press Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and The Rise of Indie Rock (pages 104-105).
Continuing to speak of Yo La Tengo, if any of you know James McNew, please encourage him to send copies of And Suddenly… our way at [email protected]. We could use his contributions!
While they never broke up, Antietam’s second act really opened around the time of Victory Park in 2004 and has continued through 2013. Fuckin’ Record Reviews will even go on record to say their three most recent albums are their best yet…and while that may read like a trad print dénouement, we mean it. Buy current ANTIETAM records here!
If you made it all the way down here, then here’s the really good news: ANTIETAM PLAY HANK’S SALOON at 46 3rd Ave (at Atlantic Ave) in BROOKLYN, Saturday 9/14/13 with ESCAPE BY OSTRICH and Pat Gubler’s P.G. SIX.
Escape By Ostrich seem to be an incarnation of the SCENE IS NOW MOFUNGO. EBO currently include Bob Bannister, formerly of FIRE IN THE KITCHEN. This is great, as is P.G. Six, who also include Bob Bannister. We should really do a Bob Bannister related post soon.
