SOUNDTRACK: HELLBENDER-Hellbender (1993).
Hellbender is a band that Wells Tower was in before he became a professional writer. He played guitar and sang backing vocals (and wrote some lyrics, but not on this album). The drummer, Harrison Hayes is now the drummer for Les Savy Fav and the bassist and singer Al Burian is most notable for his zine Burn Collector (for a time he was the most famous former Hellbender, although I’d never heard of him). They were always pretty small time, although their third album did receive some attention.
This first album is pretty rough–quickly made and cheaply mastered and yet there are good dynamics, cool breaks and a whole lot of punk. Al Burian’s voice is in shouty punk mode (lyrics are not all decipherable) and although his voice works it’s a bit samey throughout the disc. The drums don’t always sound great, but there are often cool drum breaks. And the guitars are quite assured. Despite the punk attitude, it’s not all flat out speed.
There are some dynamic breaks, like in the second track “Housebroken,” which has some cool moments when the drums highlight an unexpected tempo changed. “Clocked Out” was the single they released prior to the CD and it has some real production values (and a very funny intro from a local DJ). The guitar highlights the trebly end in a kind of ska riff which is quite different from the rest; there’s also some discernable bass lines and a cool bass/guitar solo (punk, yes, but branching out a bit). It’s a great track.
“Two Twenty Two” made it onto a couple of local compilations. It has a slightly less heavy feel, with some interesting guitar lines. “Aisle Ten” has verses that end with some really heavy (reminding me of Metallica) riffs that really punctuate the vocals. “Peeling” has some cool backing vocal chanting (as well as what sounds like an answering machine message) that sets it apart from the other songs. “Clarence” has a really long instrumental opening (1 minute out of a 2 and a half-minute song) that shows of more of Burian’s bass lines.
“Couch” was the B-side to “Two Twenty Two” and it has better production values as well–and lots more dynamic parts. The final song, Retread” is a sorta political song, “Do you remember when we were young–revolution seemed like fun. I thought I could get things done by yelling at the top of my lungs.” Not mind-blowing lyrically but a good sentiment nonetheless.
The band is very tight–their breaks and starts and stops are right on–many of their songs end suddenly and the band pulls it off very well. When I first listened to the album, I thought it was kind of pedestrian, but after really listening, I realized this is a very well-formed debut. It’s an interesting addition to any punk fan’s collection and an interesting footnote for any fan of Wells Tower. You can find a copy of the disc at Metro/Sea.
[READ: September 30, 2011] Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
After talking about Wells Tower for a while and reading all of his uncollected stories and nonfiction, I finally got around to reading his short story collection. And I think I have an interesting perspective on the book because at least two of the stories were totally reworked from their original release. Not simply updating a thing or two, but totally revamped. In my experience, aside from the David Foster Wallace essays that were truncated in their original form, this is the only book I know where the stories inside were totally rewritten for the compilation.
There are nine stories in the collection. And I have to say as an overview to this book, I can’t get over how much I enjoyed them. I mean, I knew I liked Tower from what I had read before, but I didn’t expect to enjoy this book quite so much because Tower writes a very manly kind of story. He usually writes about tough guys and men who have a hard time interacting with their fathers and other situations that are out of my ken. But Tower upends many conventions in his stories and his prose is tight and succinct and his stories are very quick to read and really enjoyable. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 