Unwound, II (MN: 25)
Unwound- Leaves Turn Inside You
The most gruesome but fascinating artifact in my vast collection is an unused ticket to see Unwound play on September 11th, 2001. The show was cancelled (but not as fast, I shit you not, as the upstairs show that night: Arab On Radar was supposed to play the Middle East Upstairs) and the band never rescheduled, then broke up.
I was SOOOO excited for the show- ‘Leaves Turn Inside You’, a double album, is the band’s most daring effort ever, a compendium of murk, echo, and production that came as a result of Justin Tropser building his own studio and having time to fuck around, figure things out. There’s so much going on- mellotron, piano, keys, slide guitar- that you wonder a) if it’s the same band, and b) whether a double album of studio compositions might be at least a little bit pretentious. The band knows about yr. trepidation, and they make fun of you- all black album cover- you see your face in the cover like in ‘Spinal Tap’.
Shit might have been a total disaster, manages to avoid that fate. The studio trickery is cool, a huge departure from the band’s fairly constant style and sound. The kernels of Unwound’s songwriting are still there underneath the layers of effects- you’re welcome to dig down and find Vern’s still instantly identifiable bass runs, Sara’s ridiculously blue-collar self-taught drumming, the sinister angularity of Justin’s guitar leads. If you like, you can consider what the songs on ‘Leaves’ would have sounded like had they been, as they were before, fighters flying overhead, rattling teeth out of sockets before dropping napalm on yr. dumb ass. Or you can consider that the band released a record they knew was going to alienate some of their fanbase because of their new, updated sound. The fact that they did it at all warrants attention; the fact that these songs are, at the very least, solid forays into expansion still makes me marvel at the thing, even if it does occasionally drag a little (like the cleverly titled ‘Terminus’, song five of fourteen, which drones on for nine fuckin’ minutes. The second disc, though, features the ten and a half minute opus ‘Below the Salt’, which is creepy and droning and kinda goth and fully awesome). An album that has been largely panned- unfairly, I think- by the band’s fans. Stop being such a Luddite and check the shit, kid!
Unwound- A Single History
Records are made to be broken. I don’t want to write about the relative shoddiness of odds n’ ends comps every time I listen to one, but I do so because they’re never as good as a full-length. I buy as many as I do, though, for the same reason I rooted for Luis Castillo, Jimmy Rollins and Johnny Damon (twice)- I wanna find one that maintains quality throughout without laying a few goose eggs.
‘A Single History’ starts off with a bang, enough to get me all psyched, thinking that Unwound was going to be able to pull it off and beat DiMaggio. The early stuff fits right in with the tracks that are found on ‘New Plastic Ideas’ and ‘The Future Of What,’ the most solid and least experimental of the band’s catalogue, where everyone in the act is on the same stylistic and sonic page. As much cohesion as a proper studio album.
The second half falls apart, alas- there’s brass, which was in vogue for a few minutes, probably because of the Nation of Ulysses. The songs featuring said that brass symbolize the beginning of the end- uneven production values and meandering ‘experiments’ (although Unwound gets points for the title of the longest, most experimental song: The Light At the End Of The Tunnel Is A Train. Bravo!) I thought that they might actually pull it off, and they kept my interest for a good long while, but having a consistently good comp album still remains the untouchable gold standard.
The most gruesome but fascinating artifact in my vast collection is an unused ticket to see Unwound play on September 11th, 2001. The show was cancelled (but not as fast, I shit you not, as the upstairs show that night: Arab On Radar was supposed to play the Middle East Upstairs) and the band never rescheduled, then broke up.
I was SOOOO excited for the show- ‘Leaves Turn Inside You’, a double album, is the band’s most daring effort ever, a compendium of murk, echo, and production that came as a result of Justin Tropser building his own studio and having time to fuck around, figure things out. There’s so much going on- mellotron, piano, keys, slide guitar- that you wonder a) if it’s the same band, and b) whether a double album of studio compositions might be at least a little bit pretentious. The band knows about yr. trepidation, and they make fun of you- all black album cover- you see your face in the cover like in ‘Spinal Tap’.
Shit might have been a total disaster, manages to avoid that fate. The studio trickery is cool, a huge departure from the band’s fairly constant style and sound. The kernels of Unwound’s songwriting are still there underneath the layers of effects- you’re welcome to dig down and find Vern’s still instantly identifiable bass runs, Sara’s ridiculously blue-collar self-taught drumming, the sinister angularity of Justin’s guitar leads. If you like, you can consider what the songs on ‘Leaves’ would have sounded like had they been, as they were before, fighters flying overhead, rattling teeth out of sockets before dropping napalm on yr. dumb ass. Or you can consider that the band released a record they knew was going to alienate some of their fanbase because of their new, updated sound. The fact that they did it at all warrants attention; the fact that these songs are, at the very least, solid forays into expansion still makes me marvel at the thing, even if it does occasionally drag a little (like the cleverly titled ‘Terminus’, song five of fourteen, which drones on for nine fuckin’ minutes. The second disc, though, features the ten and a half minute opus ‘Below the Salt’, which is creepy and droning and kinda goth and fully awesome). An album that has been largely panned- unfairly, I think- by the band’s fans. Stop being such a Luddite and check the shit, kid!
Unwound- A Single History
Records are made to be broken. I don’t want to write about the relative shoddiness of odds n’ ends comps every time I listen to one, but I do so because they’re never as good as a full-length. I buy as many as I do, though, for the same reason I rooted for Luis Castillo, Jimmy Rollins and Johnny Damon (twice)- I wanna find one that maintains quality throughout without laying a few goose eggs.
‘A Single History’ starts off with a bang, enough to get me all psyched, thinking that Unwound was going to be able to pull it off and beat DiMaggio. The early stuff fits right in with the tracks that are found on ‘New Plastic Ideas’ and ‘The Future Of What,’ the most solid and least experimental of the band’s catalogue, where everyone in the act is on the same stylistic and sonic page. As much cohesion as a proper studio album.
The second half falls apart, alas- there’s brass, which was in vogue for a few minutes, probably because of the Nation of Ulysses. The songs featuring said that brass symbolize the beginning of the end- uneven production values and meandering ‘experiments’ (although Unwound gets points for the title of the longest, most experimental song: The Light At the End Of The Tunnel Is A Train. Bravo!) I thought that they might actually pull it off, and they kept my interest for a good long while, but having a consistently good comp album still remains the untouchable gold standard.
posted by Mike at 12:11 PM
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