Seattle Subsonic

"No, YOU Listen!" – Strange Symmetry by Past Lives

August 25th, 2008

I’m so sick of the term ‘post-punk’. It used to mean something. It began as an inextricable link to the murky machinations of the era that followed punk’s golden age three decades ago. It was a gloomy, intellectual answer to the brazen, self-righteous dignities of London’s underground hardcore scene. Manchester, Factory Records, Ian Curtis—they all bleed with the aftermath of the punk music apex. Somewhere along the way, it was corrupted into a term used to describe anything that sounded like Joy Division. That seems dubious and unfair to both that untouchable band and the ones that came after it.
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I prefer the terms dark, choppy, and fluid—like an angry sea—to describe bands that might remind me of the brooding and catchy bands from the early 80s (i.e. the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Birthday Party, Gang of Four). I prefer to describe Seattle’s Past Lives this way. By now you’ve heard the story of this quartet’s genesis, birthing themselves from the amicable termination of one of this decade’s most beloved glam-punk cult bands, the Blood Brothers. There are plenty of music lovers (mostly over the age of twenty-five) who don’t identify with the blistering “screamo” the band ensnared its fans with. But behind the abrasive vocals and offbeat imagery was a collection of talented musicians who crafted at least three successful albums with haunting bass lines, tantalizing synths, and tongue-wagging guitar licks.

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That Past Lives, made up of three-fifths of that late band, incorporate some of the same elements into their debut EP, Strange Symmetry, is unsurprising. What is surprising, however, is how this offshoot has managed to sculpt and shape their incumbent talents into a more sophisticated and settled sound. That’s not to say they’ve mellowed—because they haven’t—it just means they’ve matured. Take lead track “Beyond Gone”, for example, whose chilling guitar and synthetic steel drum backbone introduce Jordan Blilie’s handsome croon (“no curtain call” he yields) and paces Mark Gajadhar’s clickity-clack drumbeat. It sets a sinister tone that is quickly blasted away with the subsequent title track. The uncommon denominator in the Brothers’ bloodline, Devin Welch, detonates a heavy dual guitar chug along with Morgan Henderson that, quite simply, makes this the standout song on the extended player. Blilie adds his familiar urgent yelp and raucousness ensues. Producer Dann Gallucci (Modest Mouse, the Murder City Devils) has his fingerprints all over this one.

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“Reverse the Curse” is a crescendo-building mad march that evokes an image (in my head, anyway) of Blilie high-kicking across the stage à la David Lee Roth, drum major hat atop his head and baton flailing wildly. Yowza. The final track, “Chrome Life” begins with a wonderfully cacophonous guitar squeal behind a wide snare beat. Henderson swells the song with a baritone guitar reminiscent of “Knight Rider” and it quickly escalates to something mysterious and volatile.

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The band’s name, they have said, is about friends reincarnate, past experiences dovetailing into something unique and contemporary. Damn right. It’s songs like those in Strange Symmetry, however, that should propel this band far into the future.

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See these rising rockers Sunday, September 7th at Neumos with Talbot Tagora and Dead Science. You’ll be impressed.