Idaho - Levitate

idaho's 'levitate'

Idaho is a slowcore group from Los Angeles. In reality the group acts a vessel for Jeff Martin's compositions. Idaho originally started off in the early '90s mimicking groups like American Music Club and Red House Painters. Their earlier records are pretty good attempts at slowcore, but they seem to want to break into rock and roll moments far too much. As Idaho progressed they become noticeably more reserved. 'Levitate' is extremely distant from Idaho's early work and in general is a pretty overwrought record. My best friend moved 9 hours away and I'm not doing anything about it. Maybe that is why this one is particularly touching right now. Jeff Martin certainly has a swagger about him that all the great artists in this style of music carry and perhaps that is why I love most of this guys work. 'I wish you'd go away / I've gotta grow up someday'

Idaho - Levitate (2001)

3 - Dark Days Coming

3's ' Dark Days Coming'

3's sound in retrospect comes off as a early example of the impact of 'revolution summer' in DC. The music here while similar to the previous Dischord "sound" is also drenched in acoustic guitars, more varied tempos, and singing rather than yelps. 3 features members from Minor Threat and Gray Matter. In general it seems like the band was very influenced by the song 'Salad Days', but that might just be the sound of the actual production of the record which has that really pristine and sharp tone. The group sounds pretty similar to Gray Matter which makes sense with two of their members (Geoff Turner the vocalist and Mark Haggerty the guitarist) making up the four piece. A lot of the songs here are really whimsical and impassioned and the timing of the record makes it come off almost as a period piece. The record rules in short.

3 - Dark Days Coming (1990)

Karate - Cancel / Sing

karate's 'cancel / sing'

Maybe self indulgent, but everything comes together throughout this record. One of Karate's finer moments.

Karate - Cancel / Sing (2002)