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Lies and Rhetoric
Statehood
Reviewed by: Kyle Shaffer [Sat, January 12, 2008 @ 11:30:21 PM]
I remember the day it happened. I was a sophomore in high school and I had somehow ended up at a café on the north side of Milwaukee, eating a sandwich that I didn't particularly like. This place was way too trendy for me; I was completely out of my element. Somehow, in the middle of rolling my food around my mouth and trying to make conversation with my friends, I mustered the courage to ask the too-cute-for-me waitress what music was being played over the speakers. "Q and not U" she kindly answered. I nodded like I had heard of them and acknowledged her coolness. She saw right through me.
Though this served as a precursor for every awkward encounter I would have with a member of the opposite sex, it also sparked my love for the Washington D.C. post-punk sound. I went out and bought No Kill No Beep Beep the next week and could not have been more pleasantly surprised. This led to the obvious discoveries of Fugazi, Faraquet, Dismemberment Plan, and currently Statehood.
The D.C. quartet has managed to debut with a disc that speaks beyond the genre that they place themselves in. Maybe I'm able to connect with this record so quickly because I have some listening history with the forerunners of the scene. Maybe it's because I like my rhythm sections tight and my guitar tone treble-heavy. Or maybe Eric Axelson, Joe Easley, Clark Sabine, and Leigh Thompson just click, and are some of the last members of a dying breed of musicians concerned about putting out records with great songs that stand for something. Take your pick.
"A Story's End" plunges listeners into an atmospheric and somewhat ironic introduction, leaving room in the verses and finally filling out with Sabine's strained, passionate vocals and wandering guitar lines sure to transport any guitar enthusiast to Fender Telecaster heaven. My first listen through the record I'd already been sold on this song alone. Follow-up "Giants" is a frantic foray into the warped psyche of a disgruntled lover, but way too catchy to be creepy. Easley's smart, disco-punk style beats reign on this record along with bassist Eric Axelson keeping things grounded and groovy.
Complacency could come all too easy to a band of Statehood's stature and background. With ex-members of a previous D.C. heavy-hitter (aforementioned Dismemberment Plan) and a wit for writing songs that safely fit the scene's expectations, songs could and often do sound the same from bands influenced by the area. While urgency and intensity remain common themes within the album, each song presents its own unique character and contributes something different.
The gyrating drums in the verses of "End The Moderation" hint in a busier direction for Easley, but don't distract from the songwriting and message. "Every Single Question" dabbles in airier sounds as Sabine contemplates what could have been between him and a long-lost significant other. The riff-heavy "Transfixed" is an obvious, but appropriate homage to the godfathers of the genre, while "No, I Don't Think You Want To Know" is a dance-your-pants-off concoction that will no doubt be stuck in the heads of nearly anyone who owns the record, but just isn't straight-forward enough to connote the word "catchy".
With so many national, political, and social aspects of life hitting just outside their door on Capitol Hill, it seems inevitable that their songwriting would be affected by it; all to the listener's benefit. Maybe this alone is the reason this scene has produced some of my all-time, top five, High Fidelity-style favorite bands. Maybe it's something you're born into, like a parallel to the East Coast 1940's be bop movement; imitators can try, but unless it's someone who is directly connected to the roots of the music it doesn't quite sound authentic. Speculation aside, Lies And Rhetoric is an impressive debut for any band. It just so happens to be the product of a band spawned from a city that breeds, births, and nurtures great bands.
7/10
RIYL: Faraquet, Fugazi, Dismemberment Plan.
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