| CD REVIEW These Arms Are Snakes |
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Band : These Arms Are Snakes Seattle's These Arms Are Snakes (oft abbreviated as TAAS) was formed in 2003 by former members of Botch (bassist/ keyboardist Brian Cook), Kill Sadie (lead singer & effects man Steve Snere) and Nineironspitfire (guitarist/ keyboardist Ryan Frederiksen). They were soon signed to Jade Tree, who opened a series of releases with the August 2003 issued 5-track mini-album This Is Meant To Hurt You (for which the trio enlist the services of Jesse Robinson on keyboards and Joe Preston on drums). Next up was a split EP with Harkonen on Hydra Head for a wacky collection of Madonna covers titled Like A Virgin (released in early 2004) prior to the September 2004 release of the band's full-length debut Oxeneers Or The Lion Sleeps When Its Antelopes Go Home. A new full-length came in October 2006. Titled Easter, it sprouted the Horse Girl 7-inch single with "Old Paradise" as previously unreleased B-side. The band has constantly toured since their first release, adding drummer Chris Common to their line-up along the way. Among the acts the foursome toured with: Isis, Zombi, Minus The Bear, Pelican, Blood Brothers, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, and many more. In 2007 alone, the band did 3 (exstensive) US tours and equally as many in Europe, and even made it to Australia and Japan. Along the way they've forged strong friendships, a first result of which is a split EP with Pelican on Hydra Head (on which each band adds to a newly recorded old track by the other). In 2007 Brian Cook joined labelmates Russian Circles in the studio to help 'em write and record their new album, also playing a couple of shows with them during late November/ early December. Upcoming split releases include a limited edition (on 500 copies will be printed by London based We Be Records)7-inch shared with Tropics, and a split 12"EP with Russian Circles (with whom the guys will be touring shortly) on a 1,000 copy rotation. Both releases meant to be sold at the band's shows only, so be there or be square! Earlier this year the band came into bigtime publicity on two separate occasions. First, Jello Biafra was confirmed by several sources to have badmouthed TAAS, saying that theirs was a prime example of “Bad Emo band names”. Was he even talking about THIS band, I wonder...because somebody needs to explain to me what thís TAAS has to do with Emo, you know!? Secondly, and of a much higher publicity value, Prince brought the TAAS song “Crazy Woman Dirty Train” (from their Easter album) during his performance at the Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival in Indio (California) earlier this year, and then filed copyright complaints with YouTube when videos of said song came on-line. This prompted a quick clean-up from the part of the server, but TAAS fans soon re-posted video footage on the site. Although Prince is known for being sensitive about copyright enfringements of his own works, but in this case the copyright wasn't even with him, and when asked for comment by Associated Press,Snere suggested Prince should be told to unblock the material posted on YouTube. Time to talk about this band's music. Self-described as "Four man with a chronic black cloud overhead; bitter, bummed out and bored," the guys take along their past musical experiences and personalities embedded deep in each song, playing a Post-Punk/Hardcore with experimental and Progressive elements and a returning degree of minimalism in the calmer passages (which are constantly played out against more energetic and nervous moments). The guitar often has a somewhat spookily weird sound (can't even begin to fathom what manner of effect pedals were used here, but some certainly were Flanger and Alt!), supporting vocals which are snarled for the most part. The rhythm section is simply Rock steady, and with Cook occasionally exchanging his bass for the keyboard/ synth, the picture is complete. Or not? If you need more clarification, perhaps you need to actually héar some of the band's music? Well, you can listen to àll material on the band's opening mini-album and the ensuing two full-lengths at last.fm/music/These+Arms+Are+Snakes?autostart. Off the new album, only the album's current single Red Line Season is available at myspace.com/thesearmsaresnakes. Oh...and by the way, guests on the album were Allejia Trout (bringing aditional vocals to aforementioned single) and John Spalding (playing extra guitar on the album closing "Briggs"). If you're the kind of music lover that needs to see a band in live conditions before going out to buy their albums, there's an opportunity to see 'em play in Europe starting October 14th (for Belgium, hurry to buy tickets for the shows at Gent's Charlatan or Leuven's Stuk on Nov. 12 and 13 respectively) on their tour with labelmates Russian Circles. Personally, I need no more convincing, and I've already ordered as much of the band's back catalogue as was still available (even going as far as ordering one item which only had 25% chance of availability). And when I react to a band's release in such a way, you would be right to think the logical result must be that I am catapulting that release into my year-lists! 98/100 Tony. |