Rodan/Rachels: Classic Or Dud/ Search & Destroy. (RIP Jason Noble - August 2012)

saw 'em once in a barn at bard, where bob weston played bass from the soundboard and made the evil acoustical place sound magical.

This is fair enough. To me it sounds (esp. from the ephemera i.e. themes, titles, cover art etc: Egon Schiele? Really, Egon motherfucking SCHIELE? poster boy for art-world poseurs since God knows when? yeeargh) like they're vying for "serious music" status, and if those are the grounds on which they want to be judged...well, they're no Kronos Quartet (bad comparison as Kronos rarely writes their own works). As classical music, it fails on a number of fronts to be at all interesting: to hear their "weighty/slow" style done right, you need only hear Bach's cello sonatas, and to hear their "intense" style done right, Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" defeats all comers. For me, the Rachel's (love that apostrophe!) are to classical music what the Minnesota Timberwolves are to basketball. Assuming that the T-Wolves had a lousy record this year.

But yeah as pleasant doing-the-washing-up music, sure, why not.

rodan i also loved - more than slint, definitely. now i hear them as the precursor to a lot of "screamo" bands and definitely contemporaries of antioch arrow and heroin and those sorta bands, though in a different cultural setting. i guess rodan were hardcore for indie kids, just as those gravity bands were indie for hardcore kids ---? likewise i can't imagine any san diego band creating something like "bible silver corner".

there's still something powerful about "pop pop! down goes the enemy!" and that first rachel's album. but once my musical worldview expanded past indie rock i sorta lost interest in rachel's and found myself enjoying far more bizarre orchestral music.

so i'd say for rodan: S: rusty, D: eveything else, especially that 7" that i looked for for years and was totally disappointed by. they work so much better on longer pieces. i found mp3's of their demo tape aviary and it wasn't bad, but definitely a "demo".
rachel's: S handwriting and the track on the lounge ax comp; i wouldn't say "destroy" to egon sheile but it's certainly not that interesting. the one after it, definitely destroy.
post-rodan rock bands: i think i'd probably say Destroy them all. maybe june of 44's tropics and meridians is a keeper - less slinty than the first one and more cohesive than any of the work to follow (esp. the extremely disappointing shipping news).

I agree that the ponderous cello business on Handwriting sounds pretentious and pales next to Bach. (That record is my least favorite of theirs.) But I agree with Bucky that their rhythms largely distinguish them from other neo-classical groups. The other day, I used Rachel's on the "indie rock" thread as an example of music that's "indie" because it develops from an "indie" background and is produced for an "indie" demographic (another way, beyond what-label-you're-on, to define "indie" outside the music itself). But I also think that their use of rollicking percussion (search: "Kentucky Nocture" on Selenography) is good evidence of their rock influence and the main reason, I think, it's not quite accurate to say they're an inferior version of Glass/Kronos/etc.

The apostrophe sucks. Why I defend this "band" I do not know.

And to top this post off, the T-Wolves have http://espn.go.com/i/nba/profiles/players/3007.jpg arguably the best player alive today, and also, as a team, quite a nice style of play. The comparison went over my head, I think, J0hn.

a precursor to bands that had already broken up? interesting. well, i couldn't agree less. like i stated upthread, i think that quite a few of you are giving way rodan way too much credit.

Sea and Bells is probably Rachel's (should that be Rachel's's?) most overtly Glassian album. I think it's a little over the top at times (Ryan Pitchfork: "Oh no, the ship is sinking!!!"), and "Sirens" is an exercise in avant-garde that succeeds only in making me get up to skip to the next track -- but goddamn if some of those repetitive melodies don't get stuck in my craw.

i'm with gygax. the best high school poetry = heavy vegetable and clikitat ikatowi. thought that might be hometown bias.

FYI heroin formed at torrey pines hs in del mar, ca in 1989 during their junior year. they broke up in 93. Rodan released their first single later that year.

aaron and ron formed antioch arrow after the heroin breakup.

Wow. Knew he fought cancer three years ago or so. Hope he had a good life during that extra hard-won time. Sad.

Sad news.

Geez, heard about this yesterday. "Rusty" was a major record for me, really blew me away when I heard it. Sad of course, gonna listen to "Rusty" right now.

Man, shit. Some brilliant stuff in that career.

https://www.facebook.com/JasonNobleBenefit

listening to the Rachel's for the first time, wow, really gorgeous music

yesterday was Jason's birthday, and Greg King uploaded a great anthology of Jason Noble onstage banter from in between Rachel's songs/shows

link is here

http://www.actualblood.com/

Only just discovered this tragic news.
Still remember Rodan live and loved Rachel's too.
Very sad.You made some great music Jason.

Bring it

http://www.touchandgorecords.com/news/detail.php?id=588

Ha, I was way harsh on this thread. I don't remember what this band sounds like tbh.

These bands, even.

And stream is up

http://pitchfork.com/advance/125-fifteen-quiet-years/

Memories flooding back of sitting on the stage at the Edinburgh Venue watching them play a set that was the 3 tracks from the peel session, Tooth Fairy & Every Day World of Bodies.
Still one of the best shows I've seen.

https://rodan93.bandcamp.com/releases

25 years ago a Louisville band called Rodan released the only record they’d make in their two year tenure. Rusty would become one of those records that launched a thousand very fucking good bands in the 90’s, an historical moment in real need of poets and punks and beautiful freaks who could render some sense and beauty out of the cultural grey water.

So here we are, and we still need a match and something that burns furious and long in the dark, and so, BAM! Surprise: newly discovered Rodan tapes have been pulled out of a secret time release vault in the floor of the Hat Factory in Baltimore, the studio where Rodan recorded early versions of the songs that would comprise Rusty. These fluid, energetic prototypes ring out like raw power emerging from a cocoon in the ground, like the twenty-five year brood of a very rare, winged insect shaking off the soil and–finally, blessedly–flying right into your ear.

All proceeds will support Girls Rock Louisville which aims to empowers girls, trans (regardless of identity) and gender non-conforming youth from all backgrounds by exploring music creation in a supportive, inclusive environment. GRL views music as a force for change and community building and as an opportunity to develop self-confidence, self-expression, and involvement in social justice.

- Joseph Manning Louisville, KY 2019

Track Listing:

1. Bible Silver Corner
2. the Everyday World of Bodies
3. Jungle Jim
4. IRS (Gauge)
5. Exoskeleton

Notes on the recording:

Recorded sometime in the first half of the year 1993 at the Hat Factory in Baltimore by Forrest (Tony) French.
Tapes rescued and transferred to digital by Adam Reach in 2015.
Remixed and Mastered by Keven Ratterman in 2019.

This recording of Exoskeleton appeared previously on How the Winter Was Passed (three little girls records).
These songs were appeared on a tour cassette called Aviary which included the original 5 songs recorded at the Hat Factory in 1992 with Jon Cook on Drums.

Tracks 1-4 were recorded again in late 1993 by Bob Weston.
With Kevin Coultas on Drums they became the most of the album Rusty (quarterstick records).

girlsrocklouisville.org
www.quarterstickrecords.com/bands/band.php?id=65
credits
released April 4, 2019

Jason Noble - guitar, vocal
Jeff Mueller - guitar, vocal
John Weiss - drums
Tara Jane O'Neil - bass, acoustic guitar, vocal

Everyone I knew in an indie rock band in Glasgow circa 2003 loved this record.

Louisville, Kentucky has produced some great music.

Niiice. Although I'm less a fan of Rodan than I am pretty much every act which derived from it (partic. Tara Jane).

bible silver corner is my fav on the album and rachel's is my favourite rodan related band

really sad to me that two of the dudes in rachel's are dead

bob weston! no wonder this shit sounds so good

Rachel's first ever show (thanks to the ever-amazing Aadam Jacobs collection): https://archive.org/details/ajc03170_rachels_1995-07-27