Friday, March 13, 2009

New Math


Drive Like Jehu released Yank Crime back in '94, on Interscope. I'm surprised it wasn't a huge sensation, but it wasn't until years later, after the band had broken up, that the majority of people began to recognize it's significance. And then, unfortunately, it was imitated and the sound was bastardized almost beyond recognition, giving birth to Emo. Eck! This is the re-release on guitarist John Reis' Swami Records, which includes three bonus tracks not found on the original release. Insane guitar work, unconventional time signatures, and driving rhythms make this a real beast of an album. It's really hard to sit still when listening to this one. Of course members also played in Rocket From The Crypt and Hot Snakes, both of which would overshadow this important project in the collective memory.

Yank.

3 comments:

Chairmaker said...

I stumbled onto this in the discount bin when it first came out and it blew my young mind.

I'll definitely be dl'ing this to get those bonus tracks.

Batguano said...

Hot Snakes rocked, and Jehu was nothing short of amazing! I missed my chance back in 1994 to see the latter (a sold out show in Fullerton, Cali), before they broke up. I heard that at one show the Snakes played "Bullet Train To Vegas," but they didn't when I saw them. Anywho, in SoCal Jehu was fairly revered, but for many, like you said, it took a while to sink in (maybe it's long-ass tracks like "Luau" that turned off the lowest common denominators).

BTW, the bonus tracks are the two off the "Bullet Train To Vegas" 7".

Oh yeah, my compliments on another great choice for a post!

TONA said...

Great album, great band. I will be checkin out
your blog cos of this post alone, hope you get some
reliable internet connection soon. Cheers,
George