"I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN..." scrapes through the throat of Demian Johnston as Playing Enemy's second full length album, I Was Your City, begins with a noisy guitar and bass, yet drum-less, intro track. Sure, we've all thought these words, we've probably even heard them in many songs before. However, this isn't your typical angsty hardcore band with trite hate-filled lyrics. You see, even though Playing Enemy broke up nearly 5 years ago, they were already veterans having come from bands like Undertow, Rorschach, Nineironspitfire, and, most notably, Kiss It Goodbye. At this point, if these guys are still angry about something there's a pretty good chance it's legitimate. Also, Johnston's scream isn't some cackle that is so overproduced and contrived that it doesn't sound human. No, his scream is about as raw and honest as you'll ever hear. He's not screaming like it's some effect that goes along with the music, he's screaming like if he wasn't holding a guitar he'd be holding a fistful of your shirt and he's going to make you listen.
As album opener "Cancer" fades, "Jade" rushes in with guns blazing. Noisy speedy punk riffs ride over some of the most creative and complicated drumming you will ever hear. Dude sounds like he's playing 3 songs at once. I Was Your City is Shane Mehling's first Playing Enemy full length on bass and rather than play a supporting role to Johnston's strumming, Shane battles each riff as the low end combatant. These guys are too smart to be angsty. This is raw passion by guys with dues paid and lessons learned. On "The End of Something" (which boasts a melodic riff that still gives me chills) when he belts out, "With all that I gave up/With all I would give up/Sure, I'll go with you/Sure, I'll leave with you/I bet we look good together" it's the raspy vocals that actually give validity and meaning to his words.
Where they started: 2001's Cesarean
Where you should start: Cesarean certainly is the more Kiss It Goodbye sounding record Playing Enemy released, maybe because every member on that album was in KIG at some point. I favor I Was Your City (if that wasn't already obvious) and I really like their posthumous EP My Life As the Villain. Playing Enemy also released a number of splits, self-released tour CD's (aptly named Gas Money and Fly Us Home), and EP's, one of which contains a great cover of The Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and another track that's over an hour long (yes, they still called it an EP). If either Cesarean or I Was Your City strikes you, it's definitely worth sifting through all of their material to find the many gems that aren't on proper records.
Essential Song:
Essential Live Video:
Some Other Stuff: It's all pretty rad, but it gets ridiculous at 1:50
Some Other Stuff They Do Now: I Know Demian Johnston does some solo stuff, as well as working with Shane Mehling on some noise stuff, or at least used to. Demian is also one of my favorite artists and posts a lot of his work here www.demianjohnston.com. Shane writes reviews for Decibel Magazine and they're easily the funniest music reviews you will ever read. Also, during Botch's final show members of PE joined Botch on stage to contribute to the madness during "Man the Ramparts."
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