EVEN

i love the latest the evens album so, so much! it was released in october last year, and they've toured extensively since then, continuing to play in non-traditional "rock" venues, but i haven't had a chance to see them yet (sang, i'm still green with envy/drenched in self-pity that you saw them at the y, and i wasn't there!), plus i only recently got a hold of the album itself...

here's the get evens dischord records site and here the one from southern.
a couple more of the songs on the album are available for listening on this fan myspace page.

for more in-depth analysis check out these two album reviews: @ sversion.com and @ pitchfork, both of which i quite like. i guess the info is mostly there in those texts - about the music, the politics, the background - but i think they still don't capture a certain something that i feel about this album... it's hard to put into words exactly how the music manages to be both lo-fi and exquisitely crafted, both mellow and hard-hitting, both melodic and dissonant in the great mackaye tradition, extremely subdued in some ways and yet completely political at the same time. it's hard to even know how to feel about it. i just think i love it because it feels so right, somehow, even when i personally wish they layered the vocals differently in a song, or made the lyrics less about bush, or whatever. and maybe it actually feels more right to see ian doing this than being in fugazi right now (there, i said it!). also, i'm kind of in awe of amy farina and her musicianship and her rapport with ian and every damn thing about this band. all of that might be grasped better, perhaps, by reading what ian has to say in this interview? but then perhaps not. (can i also comment that i wish there were interviews of amy, too?! i mean, much as i appreciate ian, it's pretty infuriating that you don't hear amy's take on things even though she's HALF of the band and the two of them are explicitly, you know,... "even"!)

ps: i found one!

pps: i think i'm gonna write a wikipedia entry for "amy farina." 'cause there freakin' isn't one. wtf?

ppps: i might already be taking back the thing about fugazi, though. sorry, there just isn't much in this world that i would be more excited about than fugazi playing together again. whenever. wherever. however.

and now for some youtube-age:
"cut from the cloth," the first track off of get evens


and only ian-related but this is too hilarious, surreal, and "deep" not to share: ian svenonious (make-up) as a pretentious art guy interviewing ian about the impact of d.c. punk/hardcore ethics on the entertainment industry, romanticizing the past, histories, his "prophet" status and many other important issues, hehe

(perhaps my favorite part - other than the visigoth comment and everything else :) - is about how the dynamic between the entertainment industry and kids always wanting to make their own music and their own culture is essentially the same as how the professional sports machine can't own all of athletic endeavor... it's so clear; of course there will always be kids playing games and sports and having fun with it. you don't have to be or to aspire to be a professional player for that to be worthwhile and important to your life - it's such a basic point, i wonder why it seems much more complicated where music and subcultures that revolve around music are concerned. hm... food for thought.)