Monday, October 20, 2008

Deep Wound - Almost Complete

In a strange turn of events, I really like a contemporary, hyped-up band, so a week ago I went to that 12 hour Fucked Up show. Moby played! Read about it on the internet! Point is, J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr & Deep Wound did some things there that inspired me to make this post.

Deep Wound play a sort of proto-grindcore where guitars are a speed-picked blur and the drums form a backdrop of pulsing noise. Rhythms are established by the changing of chords over ambient drumming, then, for the chorus, all instruments converge into a punishing counter-rhythm. Don't Need has a nice three step development, where the frenzy of the verse is slightly tempered by the pre-chorus, before the simultaneously frowny/fist-pumping break. Occasionally, a back beat is thrown in for the bridge, enabling further frowning.

Deep Wound is not special because they were teenagers trying to sound like Discharge nor because that guy had that song on the Kids soundtrack. Deep Wound is special because of their rhythmic intution.

8 comments:

Stephen said...

A+

have you read our band could be your life? they talk about deep wound in the dino jr chapter and specifically mention how j mascis was not a fan of lou barlows tendency to get emotional i.e. "lou's anxiety song." it's pretty funny.

Todd said...

I've flipped through that book, but never actually read it. Let me borrow it.

Scott D said...

methinks dino jr be special for (and i paraphrase) "having that guy that put together the kids soundtrack" and having that other guy who wrote a bunch of good tracks and whined like neil young. (what record is 'gimme indie rock' on? feels pertinent here)

teenage spazzoidness lends itself especially well to rock'n'roll (see also, certain first wave punk), and even if we just look at that period, how about deep wound and the first squirrel bait disc?

a coupla units, the first two i can think of offhand, that were prolly so dumb to music when they made that shit that they didn't know how to do much else but what they did.

i think that's the value here, even if i like your review. that deep wound shit gimmes danger, tears me up like caffeine and salami with bad mustard, rips through me quick like.

Todd said...

Funiat-

There certainly is something to be said for ignorance yielding really interesting and creative song-writing. What really amazes me is when ignorance also yields cohesiveness, because, during my period of not knowing what the hell I was doing, my songs were sprawling and retarded without any focus whatsoever. Prob had something to do with what I was into at the time, though.

And hey the salami part made me laugh in real life.

Unknown said...

But what about if knowing about music is stupid?? I don't know that it is. I try to be active and learn about music, but I suspect it might be stupid.

Also, in ten years you'll be all like, "damn I didn't know shit back then." What's up with that?

Todd said...

Dean, learning is stupid until you finally cross that threshold where you can tap into your intuition and finally, once and for all, be true to yourself.

Bombsiteboy said...

Hey! Can You re-up it please?

Todd said...

E-mail me and I'll send it!