Eddy Current Suppresion Ring/The Hex Dispensers/Fergus & Geronimo Live @ The Mohawk 6/12/10

A good punk show can do wonders for an indie rock kid. A nice brake from any art or pretension of any sort, replaced instead with loud guitars and passion. And who to do it better than the increasingly legendary Eddy Current Suppression Ring playing their first US show in three years! Add to the set two rising Texas punk bands and crafted in one hot, June night was an increasingly perfect show.

Fergus & Geronimo from Denton opened the set with some good mid-paced indie punk. The songs were catchy, and a Teenage Cool Kids sound could definitely be heard in them, probably due to them having a member of Teenage Cool Kids in the band. Nothing, unfortunately, grabbed you in the set, but there was entertainment none the less, like when the band pulled out a saxophonist for a few songs or when a guitarist broke a string and frantically ran around the stage trying to fix it. Not as engaging as I wanted, but there was potential to be seen for sure.

The Hex Dispensers brought the punk fury full swing though with their set. The moment their sound check ended they started blasting through their set. Dark, gritty punk rock was pumping out of the Mohwaks speakers at a rate you though might make them break. All the while, all the band members were jabbing and hitting their respected instruments like machines. I had never heard this band until then, despite the fact their from Austin, and I am proud to say I walked out with one of their LPs after the show.

However, it was Eddy Current Suppression Ring that truly unleashed the completely sublime, utterly great set everyone had been waiting for the entire night. From the moment the chords of "Memory Lane" filled the venue, the band took complete control. Mikey (guitar), Rob (bass), and Danny (drums) all played so in sync with another you'd think they were a well oiled clock. While this was going on Brendan sang and moved like a spirit had possessed him. It was like seeing David Byrne fronting a hardcore band. He shook, jumped on speaker, dived into the crowd. He even dived into the mosh pit that (finally) opened up mid way through the set. The band were masters of their craft, and even at their first show on the tour, managed to make it near perfect.

Fergus & Geronimo



















The Hex Dispensers

Eddy Current Suppression Ring

Album Review: Eddy Current Suppression Ring-Rush To Relax

After waiting an extra month to get my hands on the vinyl version of this album and an extra two weeks dealing with my postal service, I finally got my hands on the new Eddy Current Suppression Ring album. I was a little worried over this one, after hearing that it didn't live up the greatness that was their first two albums. True, how any artist could match Primary Colours in quality is beyond me, but I still had high hopes for this one. So do Eddy Current Suppression Ring succeed? Yes and no.

Rush to Relax will go down as the album were ECSR decided to change things up. Supposedly, the band had been listening to more of The Clean and Flying Nun style post-punk/indie rock in the lead up to this album and it shows. Opener "Anxiety" despite its speed, direct catchiness, and being an ECSR classic in the making, doesn't really showcase the album properly. Everything is slowed down, stretched out, and the guitar is less prominent than usual. Which isn't to say ECSR aren't' the garage-punk maestros you know and love. They're just tyring new things, and nine times out of ten they work. The romantic edges"Gentleman" and "I Can Be A Jerk" both have. The epic guitar solo in the middle of "Turning Out", stand outs "I've Got a Feeling", which is classic ECSR, and "Burn" which shifts into darker territory with paranoid lyrics and pencil wire riffs that will vibrate in your brain for days. All these things scream why people fell in love with ECSR in the first place and it's nice to see the band wants and can stretch its musical legs.

What doesn't work? Oddly enough, the punkiest tracks. Both "Walked Into a Corner" and "Isn't It Nice" clock in at under 2 minutes, and their herky-jerky and bluntness feel out of place and slightly forced on a controlled album like this. Also the long field recording at the end of the album feels very unnecessary. However, those are minor complaints for what is really a great album. It might be the first release the Eddy Current Suppression Ring have put that's a grower, but it will still worm itself into every garage and punk loving kid soon enough.

(mp3) Eddy Current Suppression Ring-Anxiety

Links:

Eddy Current Suppression Ring's Website
Buy the Album Here, From Goner Records