It’s New to Elliot: as suggested by Stewart Brookes

The New Generation Project Podcast is possibly my very favorite podcast about pro wrestling. Stewart Brookes, Adam Wykes and Paul Scrivens are three British gentlemen who are reviewing WWF, WCW and ECW shows from 1993 through 1998. They are all incredibly smart, consistently funny, and it’s a pleasure to be a fan of their show.

It’s also a pleasure that they’re such pleasant people, because Stewart was nice enough to respond to me and suggest records for me to listen to this week. Through some passing comments on the podcast, I had suspected that Stewart was an astute music fan, especially within genres that I like. This proved to be true, as a few of the suggestions Stewart sent were already big favorites of mine. But we got enough records for us to proceed, and here are the results. Once again, thanks to Stewart for being such a superb guy and a superb podcast host.

Christie Front Drive — Stereo

The biggest claim to fame for Christie Front Drive is that they did a split 7" with a pre-fame Jimmy Eat World in 1995. The pairing makes sense, as both bands were on the ground floor of what would become the second wave of American emo music, but where Jimmy Eat World tended toward the sweet side, Christie Front Drive were just a bit more raw. I saw them compared to Drive Like Jehu and that’s a great reference point, as they do have that noisy, clanging guitar thing going on under their very pretty exterior. It’s no surprise that this record, their final effort before breaking up in ’97, was not their ticket to superstardom. It is not immediately hooky. It doesn’t have huge singalong parts that a roomful of teenagers could scream to the heavens. The vocals aren’t even in front enough for you to hear much of the lyrics. But the record does have a subtle beauty that unfolds across some very well-crafted songs, showing a level of restraint that future emo bands would toss aside in favor of big, dumb feelings (hi, Taking Back Sunday!).

My Opinion: 7/10

Frightened Rabbit — The Midnight Organ Fight

I don’t listen to a lot of the “grand indie rock,” which is my term for indie rock that would fit comfortably in an arena with its huge drums, thick guitar strumming and soaring vocals. That’s why I surprised myself by almost immediately locking in with Frightened Rabbit, because they very much fit the “grand” mold of indie. It’s big, loud rock music, but it’s gentle enough that it’s not going to piss off any parents. However, the parents will get pissed if they listen closer, as Scott Hutchison’s lyrics are brutally honest about sex and relationships. I think it’s this openness and vulnerability that makes Frightened Rabbit much more relatable than their peers, in addition to Hutchison’s disinterest in hiding his thick Scottish accent. The vulnerable lyrics are couched in shaky melodies that let everything sink in a little sweeter, alongside some very pretty guitar textures. Despite the fact that two of these songs were used in episodes of One Tree Hill, it is not an overly cornball record. It’s very good indie rock, and I don’t hear that too often these days.

My Opinion: 8/10

i hate myself — 10 songs

Some music was just designed to be played in a basement, and I don’t mean that as an insult. i hate myself was an emo/screamo band from Florida that I have to imagine played a lot of house shows, and they designed their music to be played in small, intimate spaces where the crowd could really lock in with them. Not as frantic or metal-influenced as other screamo bands of the time, this is screamo with extra crying and wailing. Jim Marburger alternates between a pained scream and a type of singing that’s very limited and not all that good, but come on, that’s the point. It wouldn’t be honest music if the singing was perfect, or if they did another take every time he messed up on guitar (which he does a few times). This is an imperfect record that employs the same quiet/loud dynamic in almost every song, but I found it charming as it reminded me of the week I spent in Florida back in 2003 with my pals in Dispensing of False Halos. We played hot, sweaty rooms for small amounts of people, and it was the best. i hate myself paved the way for that scene, so I thank them for it.

My Opinion: 6/10

Indian Summer — Science

Another band that laid some of the groundwork for the screamo of the late ‘90’s/early 00’s that tripped my trigger so much, Indian Summer starts this 1994 record with a damn Bessie Smith sample, and if you want to talk about really tripping Elliot’s trigger, then that’s a thing that does that. The drumming is purposely disjointed and the guitars shoot bursts of noise that sometimes hit a deeply melodic frequency. The vocalists go from tortured yelps to the high-pitched screams that would become the hallmark of screamo. I highly enjoyed listening to this because it reminded me of two bands: the first is obviously Fugazi, who must have been a huge influence on Indian Summer, with their tasteful and artful dissonance. The other band I’m reminded of is Iowa City band Ten Grand, first known as The Vida Blue. They came just three or four years later, but also did that same tentative yet unhinged screamo thing, but without conforming to a certain sound (as always, RIP Matt Davis). When I can think of those two bands while listening to a record, I’m a happy guy. Stewart has hipped me to yet another band that I must know to truly understand underground hardcore from the past.

My Opinion: 7/10

Native Nod — Today Puberty, Tomorrow the World

This is actually a compilation record that collects the three 7" records Native Nod released from ’92 to ’94. These nine songs are all they ever released, but even such a small sample size shows a band who were on some advanced stuff. Off-kilter beats, dissonant guitar and anguished spoken-word vocals all predict the screamo and emotional hardcore movements that would come toward the middle and end of the ‘90’s, so Native Nod deserves kudos for being so forward-thinking. As to whether it’s good or not, that’s a tougher question. Some of it really hits its stride with a few cool guitar lines, but a lot of it just sounds too underdeveloped, and unfortunately, poorly recorded. I can get with a lo-fi sound, and it’s not that this stuff sounds like a tin can, but some of it just isn’t recorded in a way that lets the good material ring out properly. And stylistically, they were just all over the place, but I’m willing to forgive that since there was almost no template for what they were doing. I’m curious to know how Native Nod would have evolved had they stayed together. Maybe they would have invented pop-punk and taken Blink-182’s place. We’ll never know.

My Opinion: 5/10