Drive Like Jehu - Yank Crime (1994) (1 Viewer)

[dudley]

4.67 star(s) Rating: 4.67/5 3 Votes

Title: Yank Crime
Artist: Drive Like Jehu
Released: 1994

Tracks:
1 - Here Come the Rome Plows - 5:43
2 - Do You Compute - 7:12
3 - Golden Brown - 3:14
4 - Luau - 9:27
5 - Super Unison - 7:24
6 - New Intro - 3:32
7 - New Math - 4:05
8 - Human Interest - 3:24
9 - Sinews - 9:07

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

There you go, Pete, move that into album club, please and thank you

It's not Irish, did you not get the memo for Album Club 2017.

 

[dudley]

SAD!

 

[chris d]

Fair play, he's gone rogue.

MATH ROCK? sakes.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

When did we last have a prog album?

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

When did we last have a prog album?

Or a classical album? Or a jazz album? Or a reggae album? Or a soundtrack? Or a country album?

 

[hydromancer]

The album club coup is underway !

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I see a pattern emerging

 

[dudley]

Petey, ratings please

 

[pete]

Petey, ratings please

Another Dudley disaster to clean up.

THANKS

 

[nooleen]

Petey, ratings please

1/5

 

[dudley]

Well, this was a great idea

 

[nooleen]

i thought we listened to this band already

or maybe i just listened to them one time myself

either way, i didn't get it

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I might listen to it tomorrow

 

[dudley]

Sigh, we should have had this LP every week IMHO, IYKWIM.

For me, this is the game changer. I grew up listening to Queen and U2 and Led Zeppelin and blah, but my ears were alerted to something being a bit different or possible by a tape a friend gave me when I was 13 or 14. One side had a recording of the third Velvet Underground LP which had been dubbed wrongly, it was the left channel only, so I only ever heard Sterling Morrisons needling guitars. The other side was Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge Gaisbourg. Neither record made any sense to me, and they sounded like nothing I'd ever heard before. Everything I'd been listening to beforehand was immediately deflated and shrill to my ears, I was captivated by the wrongness of both these records. And a hunt began to find ever more exhilirating records that might shake me up as vigorously as those did.

I detoured via Husker Du, the Minutemen, the Fall, countless 7's bought mail order from Rhythm Records after hearing a solitary spin on the Peel show. And then one afternoon took a chance on this cheap looking record with an ultra minimalist sleeve in Freebird. 3 of the songs were on a 7" that fell out of the sleeve.

From the first listen, my jaw dropped. The production is dry and harsh and had none of the glisten almost every other guitar record of its era does (which is why I'd argue it still sounds utterly contemporary today), the vocals seem inhumanly ragged, how could a voice withstand that abuse, the bass and drums are genuinely thunderous. But the guitars....

Sure, the guitars have forebearance in the ilk of Fugazi or the Wipers, but I'd never heard them played like this before. Every ounce of John Reis' body is poured into each stroke, they lacerate and crawl and tear strips throughout the songs. Even the guitar production was weird, his guitar is triple tracked at times, while Rick Frobergs solitary track is this cutting splindly maggotty thing, sounding like his artwork looks, just sat right in your speaker demanding to be heard.

I spent months holed up in my room trying to figure out every part, and to this today it's the only record I can play from start to finish. I learned how to play guitar along to Led Zeppelin, but this taught me how to fucking *play* guitar. Still a massively inspiring important record, should be taught in schools.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

Well, this was a great idea

I still haven't caught up on stuff from last year. I did listen to the 30 second free listen thing in the Spotify link. It was fine I suppose. Will do the three listens thing.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I just don't like this kinda music at all, I think I missed the boat with this genre. Every song sounds like I heard it too many times before but I'm on my third listen now all the same. The singing is a deal-breaker for me, I hate it. I hated the drumming initially too but I've warmed to it a bit now. The guitars are good and I like the energetic vibe of it generally but I'm done with it now, my chakras are worn out from all this shouting.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

I am going to give this a spin this afternoon since I know nothing about this band but the name.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

First track in and it sounds deadly! I wouldn't have liked this back in the day but it sounds great to me now. Are they good live? So much energy, makes me feel bad I am such a shit musician. The dynamics, the tightness etc. are unreal.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

It brings to mind the fact that partly because of my age and the circles I moved in and partly because y'know albums used to cost £15 to £20 a pop the fact that I missed out on a whole shitload of decent North American stuff. Other than the obvious big bands I wasn't even really aware of Pavement until about 1999 or 2000 and they were only luminaries amongst a vast trove of left-of-centre rock/pop/metal/punk that came out of that continent in the '80s and '90s.