drive like jehu - yank crime: classic or dud?

that's what my friend Ned (not Raggett) says about my inability to appreciate Yngwie Malmsteen.

been listening to yank a lot as of lately....wanted to revive this

Been listening to them a lot lately myself.

Seems a little unfocused to me compared to the songwriting on Hot Snakes records, but I've only listened a few times.

this shit goes hard

kind of annoyed they're playing here next month but as part of the dreaded riot fest

I'm sure the festival circuit means they are getting paid better but it does seem a little odd they are skipping a club tour to play to sub-100 people crowds (according to reports) at Coachella et al.

Fun fact: I have never really listened to this band! Which is weird cuz some people I'm close to would consider them to be a life-changer.

I don't hate them or anything, I've just never gotten around to them.

ha yeah, i'd say they might be slightly overrated by now (inevitable when you're a band lauded mostly on the merits of just one album). but they are definitely great. glad they are getting a payday via the festival circuit...

Impossible to overrate imo.

do u compute

amazing album

Hah hello global, nice to see you here (was wondering why this got bumped). This is one of my favorite records of all time and at least one ideal version of how two guitars playing together should work. I spent years chasing down more music that "sounded like Yank Crime" and there is no other music that hits the highs of this album in exactly this way (in my opinion). It truly is amazing and was an extremely formative discovery for me (as was seeing them live on that tour a week after buying the record).

This is actually an interesting story in a way, as I imagine that this type of thing doesn't happen to often for people under a certain age, or more to the point hasn't happened, due to the way music travels and gets discovered now. Essentially I was in a heavy phase of trying to fill gaps in my music knowledge as well as find new shit to listen to in 1993-94, and going to school in central Maine made that a bit challenging. One of the things I did to help was buy Option magazine, which no longer exists but at the time was an amazing resource as they published like 200 record reviews an issue (maybe an exaggeration, but it was a lot regardless). I had gone with some friends to live in Boulder, Colorado for the summer, and the recent issue of Option had a little blurb about "Yank Crime" that essentially said it was the best guitar album of the year. That was really all it took for me to go to the good record store in town and see if they had it. They did, so I bought it unheard and while I was leaving the dude working let me know that they were playing next week right up the street from me. So, I went home, got high, and immediately put the record on. The first track of course wastes no time on ripped the top of my head off. I wasn't sure what I was hearing, and honestly it was a version of sensory overload mixed with thrilled delight that I have not experience many times in my life. I had trouble taking it all in but I definitely remember feeling like I had walked into a new world or something (remember, I was high). But yeah, I just kept playing it over and over trying to make sense of it and absorb it all. I also determined that I better go see them live because I couldn't really fathom how they were gonna pull some of it off. But of course they did. One of the funnier aspects was that the music (to me) seemed so aggressive and over the top, and I had limited experience going to like hardcore/punk show, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I imagined that I was going to stick out and kinda be the obvious "square" there, but of course the audience was made up of like super-nerdy but cool heads. It was amazing and truly changed my life. The other bands on the bill were Superchunk and Polvo but unfortunately Polvo's van had some kind of issue and didn't make it. I still regret that to this day as I became a super-fan very shortly thereafter. Fuck I love "Yank Crime."

But yeah, that read about a record in a magazine and head to a record store to find it and get a tip about a show is all stuff that still happens I am sure, but there was no getting online to find out more or going to a torrent site or Youtube or whatever to get some samples of what they sound like. Also, I spent roughly 5 years asking anyone I met if they like Drive Like Jehu/Yank Crime, and did not find a one other than the few friends I was able to convert. Five years! Hard to believe now but things traveled differently then.

I couldn't really fathom how they got their jobs at underwriters lab

Along with Spiderland, one of the only "post-hardcore" albums that truly matters imo. A perfect 10.

I've still somehow never heard the s/t album

I like s/t better but then again I heard it first

i agree there are no albums that do exactly what yank crime does. i remember exactly where i was the first time i heard do you compute and i was like oh, yeah, this is what i want all guitar music to sound like.

It's all about "Luau" for me. Have we ever polled this album?

When I first heard DLJ it was a legitimate “HOLY SHIT THIS IS THE SOUND I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR” moment.

try not to overdo it but it's been three months, so

wonderful post davis!

super-nerdy but cool heads

these are my folks. and yeah the album got polled, luau won in a blowout

guess i'm gonna go cook dinner to this record

Glad you appreciated global, hope it was a good dinner. Sorry for all of the typos, wish I could go edit them.

This thread reboot got me thinking about this record a lot (which honestly I have done a TON in my life as it holds such a strange place within my personal history) but one thing occurred to me: this is like the 90s post-punk "Marquee Moon," and "Luau" is the equivalent of the title track. I need to have a talk with Mr. Wilcox, who suggested above (like 5 years ago hah hah) that maybe this record has become overrated. Not even close hah hah.

Funny you say that grandavis, as I have a theory that there is a very specific moment in Marquee Moon that sparked DLJ’s entire aesthetic. I can picture Speedo learning to play that song and deciding to write a whole song of his own that sounds like that one moment where Verlaine is pounding on the octave chords.

ehhh, I feel like there's some cringe-y critical projection ITT.

I feel like there are far more obvious sparks to DLJ's aesthetic that do not require a vast stretch of imagination. They're pretty open about their influences as well, it's not like they're mysterious about it.

like this b-side from 1988:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmwXFquMAEo

Cringe-y is a little strong I think

yeah, imagining connections is fun. i’m open to the television influence. the pitchfork record, i seem to remember, has more melodic elements to it and a verlaine / lloyd vibe isn’t far off.
obv they were influenced by their contemporary post hardcore peers too

love that honor role song, i know it well from homestead's 'human music' comp. never made the connection before though!

challop: the key to this album's excellence is Mark Trombino's cymbals. the ones he uses, where he uses them, where he doesn't, yeah man. they're special, and this album is about the cymbals, and if you listen 3,817 times you'll come to understand that as I have come to understand it.

the psychotic crescendo in Luau where Rick's ten-seconds-to-self-destruct alarm riff thing drilling into your brain gives way to John's bird-chirpy feedback splatterprint thing and both of those THINGS congeal just moments before the whole thing detonates, well yeah obviously that's all guitar, but don't let it distract you from the cymbalsmanship! there's world-class cymbalsmanship happening all the time on Yank Crime and I refuse to let it go unacknowledged.

Hah hah "some cringe-y critical projection ITT." A) I am no critic, I am a massive fan who doesn't care to get critical about this album or band as I can't find much to criticize and instead just tend to sit back and enjoy them and B) I mean I made a silly comparison between one long mega-jam by a two guitar band that I love to another long mega-jam by a two guitar band that I love. The second reference to Television () was simply to note that the hammering away at the ascending octave chords in "Marquee Moon" DOES remind one of a whole lot of 80s/90s post-punk, math-y bands that used octaves a lot (including Drive Like Jehu). Not a big deal, just yeah seems like "critical projection" is a bit much hah hah.

And yes, I know that they have cited Honor Role/Breadwinner and the guitar playing of Pen Rollings in particular as an influence. That is a very cool song and you can certainly hear how Froberg might have taken a cue or two from the singing for sure. This does not mean that it is not fun to make a "vast stretch of imagination" from time to time, no? Sheesh.

this is one of my favorite albums of all-time but it's always seemed pretty obvious to me that the major influences weren't so much gossipy new york junkie shit like Television so much as it was Die Kreuzen Cows and Beer, Battalion of Saints Second Coming, Saccharine Trust Paganicons, and Genesis We Can't Dance.

I used to play a game when I was much younger of listening to Led Zeppelin songs while trying to focus mainly on John Paul Jones's basslines. It was pretty magical. I will give this a shot with the cymbals! I actually love the first record too (though "Yank Crime" really took their thing to a new level and will always be my favorite) and I think Trombino's drums are a big part. There was a bit more diversity of approach on that record, and I think rhythmically it perhaps went more places. Like, "Future Home of Stucco Monstrosity" is such a cool song, but it would sound out of place on "Yank Crime" I think.

Hah hah yeah I mean it wouldn't surprise me if Reis didn't like Television at all. There was no real effort to suggest actual influence there. My comment was about how "Luau" sits in my personal history as like MY "Marquee Moon" (though I love that song as well). It was a statement of purpose that "Luau" is like my epic guitar jam of choice and for other 90s kids it may also hold a similar spot.

stuccomonstrosity was my soulseek username

Nice! Just listened to it again for the first time in quite a while. I love it.

me too, man. and as a native and current San Diegan, it's a big point of pride musically. right up there with Scream Dracula Scream and Automatic Midnight in my personal greatest albums of all-time list, except I'm left wondering why they all had to stick with the boring-ass black-and-white art scheme for their cover designs. I feel like I'm being discriminated against as a non-tattoo-having guy.