My Chicago pals, for whom I set up one of my first shows back in 1995, are finally back with a new album, again recorded with Mass Giorgini. It’s been 5 years since I heard new work from them, although they had an EP out in 2003 through their own Offtime label. This new one got released on Thick Records who signed them recently. Let’s hope this finally gets this band where it should be, because I really mean it when I say that this is probably the most underrated band ever. It took them over 2 years of recording. Not really abnormal, if you look at these guys’ personal busy schedule: Scott (vocals) teaches and is still aiming for his Ph.d. and Bryan (drums) is an IT-guy building websites for large companies. Kids were born, marriages been celebrated… so the recordings were actually done in different sessions over these 2 years.

The transformation that this band had gone through from their debut 1994 album “Power Tools” over 1996’s “Burn Tempe To The Ground” to 2000 album “Pop Culture Failure” was pretty impressive, evolving from a crunchy technical guitar-punkband with an at that time sometimes daringly difficult sound into a much more complex yet fluent, Jawbreaker-like songbuilding. The only constant for me in these last 10 years seems to be Scott’s ability to give this twisted guitar a unique Horace Pinker sound. When I met them the other day Bryan explained that with “Pop Culture Failure” the band actually felt that this was the sound they had been in search for for nearly 10 years, and when I listen to this new album, I have to confirm that these songs have a pretty similar foundation as on that last album, although there’s 2 new members aboard (who both also play in Stereo South).

In the first half of the album there’s some kind of a drop of pace and more emotions in a couple of songs. The passing away of Bryan’s mother in 2002 after a 2 year long battle against colon cancer was an important inspiration for this album with 2 songs specially dedicated to her: “Morning Sunshine” (a beautiful dragging song with great higher vocals in the chorus) and the moving acoustic title track “Texas One Ten”, magnificently sung by Don, gradually spiced up with subtle percussion and a cello, and named after the highway that runs through a small town in East Texas where she grew up and was burried. Music just can’t get more expressive than this.

Anyway, if you like your punkrock more spicy, don’t let this scare you, as there’s enough of that driving Jawbreaker-power in the rest of this album, and you even get a few vocal powerblasts like in the opening track “Polisci 101” or “Exhale To Asphyxiation” where they take a yelling detour. Also more worked-out than previously are the 3-way vocal harmonies, especially in songs like “Retrospective” and “Half Way” and I have always been a sucker for that. “Resonate So Real” uses the vocal distortion, which in conjuction with the guitars make it a somewhat At-The-Drive-In related song. Closing song “Still Life” is maybe one of the most powerful, driving songs on this album and finishes off in great guitar-extravaganza. A nice exclamationmark to this terrificly textured album that requires of a listener to dig in for a while, because there’s not the shout-alongs and poppy tunes that will immediately grab you, which is probably the main reason for them being so underrated. Once you explored this album thoroughly though, take in consideration which emotions inspired some of these songs and read along these well-written lyrics that at times even have a clever political message, you’re in for a treat that will definitely last for more than a few listens.

How I’d really love to see these guys finally get what they deserve. In these last 20 years I met bands, I never came across more kind, down-to-earth and grateful people like them. I know I’m complaining and bitching a lot lately, but it’s people like Bryan and Scott that keep me going in this scene. They really have meant a lot to me over the last few days. Thanks guys for fueling that spirit again.