Dive Like Jehu: Bullet Train To Vegas 7", Self Titled LP & Yank Crime

Jehu came along at the perfect time for me. I absorbed sounds from the likes of Nation Of Ulysses, Girls Against Boys, Cop Shoot Cop, Sonic Youth, etc. But then some friends turned me on to this band.

My first introduction to them was seeing a sticker on a friends guitar my freshman year. Then the self titled followed by the 7". I was blown away. Both vocals, the discordant chords, drawn out time signatures...it all made sense and was very uplifting to hear. Granted, a lot of music can do this to you at an early age, but most don't stand the test of time. I can safely say Jehu did that.

Many people, myself included, site them as a major influence in the 90's. They fulfilled a lot of my musical tastes and more. To this day, you can always hear filtered jehu-esque parts in some bands material. One good example was San Diego's scene shortly after their existence. A lot more Hardcore was also adapting their writing style to their music. I thought you could always hear some Reis in Swing Kids guitar parts, as well as many other bands. Bands I was in were definitely included!

Their history is long and complex and still to this day, most members continue with music and, or something that relates.

Forming in 1990 in San Diego, CA, John Reis and Rick Froberg created Drive Like Jehu after the demise of their prior group, Pitchfork. They sounded similar, but differences included Rick playing guitar as well as vocals. Also, the addition of Mark Trombino on drums and Mike Kennedy on bass rounded out the nice complexity that would come from intricate, interweaving guitars and odd time signatures. Kennedy went on to be a chemist and Trombino remained a music engineer. He is known for recording such groups in the day as Boys Life to bands such as Blink 182 & Jimmy Eat World. Froberg continued with his Visual and Graphic arts career. It should be noted that all of Pitchfork, Jehu and Hot Snakes art for their records and merchandise was created by Rick.

John always remained in Rocket From The Crypt during Jehu. The growing success of Rocket is what essentially put an end to the band. Over the years, John played once more with Froberg. That band was called Hot Snakes. You can find more about them, Jehu and several others on Swami Records, John's label.

Jehu recorded and released two full lengths, a 7" and a compilation track for a compilation CD. All of this you will find here in this posting. The compilation track is the last song on Yank Crime.

Enjoy!

Bullet Train To Vegas 7"



1. Bullet Train To Vegas - 2:40
2. Hand Over Fist - 4:24

Self Titled



1. Caress - 3:55
2. Spikes to You - 2:18
3. Step on Chameleon - 5:12
4. O Pencil Sharp - 9:44
5. Atom Jack - 2:24
6. If it Kills You - 7:12
7. Good Luck in Jail - 4:05
8. Turn it Off - 6:12
9. Future Home of Stucco Monstrosity - 3:58

Yank Crime



1. Here Come the Rome Plows - 5:44
2. Do You Compute - 7:12
3. Golden Brown - 3:14
4. Luau - 9:27
5. Super Unison - 7:24
6. New Intro - 3:32
7. New Math - 4:06
8. Human Interest - 3:24
9. Sinews - 9:12

Electric Wizard: Supercoven, Let Us Prey, Witchcult Today

Those of you who love the Doom Metal genre, Electric Wizard must be and most likely is one of your favorites. A few of their 6 LPs & 6 EPs are regarded very highly and thought of as pretty important. "Come My Fanatics..." would have to be one of them.

Electric Wizard had their fair share of up's and downs. There was the obvious, which are loss of members and tensions on tour between members. But random other acts would always seem to interfere.

Such as:

1. Guitarist Jus Oborn was arrested for possession of marijuana.

2. Mark Greening was arrested for assaulting a police officer.

3. Tim Bagshaw served a sentence for robbery.

4. Oborn suffered a collapsed eardrum during a concert.

5. Oborn later severed a fingertip during, what has been described as a"DIY accident"

6. Greening broke his collarbone in a motorcycle accident

Definitely one of my fav's when it comes to this sound. Some call it drone, stoner, stoney, whatever. Very full, hypnotic, guitar fuzzy, ambient at times and some great background records. Always keeps me satisfied.

Lets Us Prey as well as Witchcult Today are LPs. Supercoven is an EP. Supercoven was from 98, Prey came out in 2002, Withcult, their most recent, in 2007.

Check out more for yourselves if you enjoy these.


Let Us Prey




1. ...A Chosen Few – 6:35
2. We, the Undead – 4:29
3. Master of Alchemy – 9:23

I. House of Whipcord
II. The Black Drug

4. The Outsider – 9:18
5. Night of the Shape – 4:02
6. Priestess of Mars – 10:02

Supercoven



1. Supercoven – 13:13
2. Burnout – 18:39

*Extra songs included on the 2000 reissue:

3. Wizards of Gore – 9:02
4. Electric Wizard (live) – 9:53


Witchcult Today



1. Witchcult Today – 7:54
2. Dunwich – 5:34
3. Satanic Rites of Drugula – 6:06
4. Raptus – 2:13
5. The Chosen Few – 8:19
6. Torquemada '71 – 6:42
7. Black Magic Rituals & Perversions – 11:01

I. Frisson Des Vampires
II. Zora

8. Saturnine – 11:04

Discordance Axis: Jouhou

A band that ranks high in the "holy shit, this is brutal" realm is non other than Discordance Axis. Very reminiscent of early Napalm Death(IE: Scum, Enslavement, etc)

The power and intensity of Mr. Dave Witte's percussion in this group is nothing shy of say an M16 machine gun. The vocals can be ranked up their with Eye of early Boredoms. Shrieking to low grunting. The guitars? Well, I can honestly say they"shred" without feeling cheesy. I really enjoy the fact that they're so heavy and played at half or even quarter time of the drum tempo. Something that kept D.A. apart from other Grindcore.

I first heard of this group in 1998 when this LP was released. It was pretty limited and hard to find in some stores. A friend in Richmond, VA played it shortly after he seen them. After that, I had to find one for myself. It took a couple years, but damn it, I found one.

This CD version of the vinyl(originally on Devour in 98, re-released on Hydra Head)features a couple 7" splits as well. Most notable are the Plutocracy and Melt Banana splits.

In my prior post, I mentioned that I listened to His Hero Is Gone if I was "upset/pissed off" I figured someone who is about to commit a serious, vicious and gruesome crime would use this as their soundtrack.

Enjoy!

Jouhou



1. Vertigo Index – 0:53
2. Panoptic – 0:58
3. Aperture of Pinholes – 1:01
4. Information Sniper – 0:41
5. Carcass Lottery – 1:15
6. Come Apart Together, Come Together Alone – 0:45
7. Rain Perimeter – 0:53
8. A Broken Tomorrow – 0:46
9. Attrition – 0:26
10. Nikola Tesla" – 1:02
11. Flow My Tears the Policeman Said – 0:52
12. Jouhou – 0:48
13. Damage Style – 0:51
14. Aether Scalpul" – 0:36
15. A Crack in the Cataracts – 0:28
16. Numb(ers) – 0:46
17. Ashtray Ballpoint – 0:58
18. Typeface – 1:10
19. Reciprocity – 1:12
20. Reincarnation – 1:17
21. Alzheimer – 0:35
22. Flow My Tears the Policeman Said – 0:51
23. Eye Gag – 0:24
24. Area Trinity – 1:11
25. Integer – 1:03
26. Information Sniper – 0:39
27. Tip – 0:59
28. Tokyo – 0:37
29. So Unfilial Rule – 0:09
30. Junk Utopia – 1:15
31. Continuity – 1:26
32. [untitled] – 2:23