The Slashes – War Candy
People in Western countries were fishing for some excitement for a really long time. They demanded something big, loud, and, hopefully, a little violent. The state was set, the costumes were designed, the cast was put on retainer.
The result was a mangled mess of catastrophes. The Slashes make romantic post-punk about these disasters, and go back in time to analyse whether the calamities of different eras were of a greater caliber.
It’s only natural to react to the things you’re shown. The violence and angst that surround our daily lives seep into everything we do, including in the way we love. Everything is a blood sport nowadays including regular people’s average love affairs.
It’s a sound that seems to blend Morrissey-like detachment with tense post-punk grooves with which The Slashes work. “War Candy” is a stylish song about flipping through a catalogue of atrocities. It’s a song about adding love to that list and slowly walking away. The Slashes know where this whole business of violence is going, and they’re not yet afraid enough to sit on the sidelines.
Kadjavsi – True Defective
Joe Strummer used to say that the only reason we like rock bands is that none of us can believe that some people actually manage to work together for a common goal. Put together a group of 3-4 people and you won’t get them to agree about what type of pizza pie to order, let alone what kind of music to make, what lyrics to write and how to present themselves to an audience.
Nobody can stand another person for too long unless they’re mentally deranged. That makes relationships of all kinds, friendships in particular, all the more valuable and rare. Kadjavsi’s “True Defective” is an ode to imperfect relationships, and it contains just the kind of angsty lyrics and tense, sparse orchestration that this kind of idea deserves.
Inspired by an HBO classic that celebrated complex relationships set against the backdrop of some inhospitable place in the world (a most recent one is set in the tectonically challenged plains of Iceland), Kadjavsi works with a similar kind of tension. Take the vocals away, and “True Defective” has a film noir quality to it, the feel that you’re reading a murder confession written in code. It’s a mighty clever touch, especially since most long-lasting relationships feel like this anyway. It all leaves you pondering one question: How do long-running bands which feature the same members for the whole of their existence manage without killing each other? Hm!
