Band of the Week - The Minor Times

Masters of the Side 1 Track 1 intro.  Every release opens with a distant static-y guitar lazily building into an explosion of heavy music as Brendan McAndrew never fails to scream the word "fuck" in the first line; "I'd like to see you word fuck your way out of this." to the more anthemic (as you'll see below) "Fuck me? No, fuck you." to "Turn up the fucking static." (I usually try to edit this and keep it clean, but not this week). Yeah, I know, that sounds like some angsty Korn junk that would attract mall dwellers that swoon for any kind of foul language in music.  I've usually clung to the notion that using "fuck" in lyrics is a cheap ploy to attract the forever present angry youth demographic.  However, The Minor Times are a lot more clever and way more frightening than that.  These aren't gimmicks to lure in the simple minded.  It's an alert to warn you about the aural altercation you're about to endure.  So put up your dukes because it's too late to talk your way out of this one.

This isn't a prize fight either, it's a sweaty basement near Philly in August.  So forget the bells and whistles.  In fact, The Minor Times kind of sound like Botch without the bells and whistles. The relentless heavy churning feels a little like Kiss It Goodbye, and a few off beat starts and stops to give a nod to tech metal.  Where The Minor Times stand out are the more subtle aspects; lumbering smooth groove and a keen songwriting ability.  So many heavy bands try to find a niche, but usually are more successful (assuming they're successful at all) at finding a schtick instead.  Lost on the instant gratification generation is the ability to lead into a song (mentioned above), pulverize and smoothly transition into the next phrase without losing force, pace, or attention.  All the while still being able to surprise the listener and keep it fresh even with multiple listens. It's a good thing, too because when Mr. McAndrew changed his vocals from the higher pitched screams on the first EP (and a couple of compilation songs) to the more guttural Turmoil-esque tough guy bellows on the full lengths, it was TMT's songwriting ability that kept me interested. It's what separates them from similar sounding acts like Achilles and Engineer.  Not that those bands are bad, but The Minor Times are just more crafty.  Drummer, Brian Medlin's refusal to use a double bass pedal was also an impressive move and certainly the road less traveled in the realm of heavy music in the last decade.  Medlin is a madman behind the kit, too, often sounding like he's perfectly copy and pasted a tech metal drum session under these thick grooves.

Back before the whole social media age, people used to spam message boards with their mp3.com link... um, myspace link?  Hopefully, you remember at least one of those.  Anyway, I was on one of these message boards when one of The Minor Times members posted their band's link.  I quickly clicked to listen so that I could, no doubt, ridicule this silly spammer and tell him just how awful his band was.  I suspect it was about a year later when I was making the 5 hour drive to see The Minor Times with Ed Gein.  Couple that with the fact that The Minor Times frontman joined Ed Gein for a crowd pleasing rendition of Coalesce's "You Can't Kill Us All" and it was all worth the 5 hour drive back that same night.  Of course, The Minor Times are no more and members went on to be in Person L, Wives, and Ladder Devils to name a few.  Most of the members of The Minor Times came from a band called Inkling which was kind of similar, but incorporated a lot more singing and softer parts.

Where They Started: 2002's Chris Chambers Never Misses EP

Where You Should Start: It's very hard for me to recommend a 5 song EP over a couple of full lengths unless it is absolutely phenomenal.  And that's where we're at.  Definitely dive into the EP.  I love the higher pitched vocals.  They also have 2 songs on a Robotic Empire sampler that also feature that vocal style, but were later reworked and rerecorded with the deeper vocals for the debut full length.  I'm not saying the full lengths aren't worth getting... eventually.  If you like those deeper vocals then by all means go with one of the full lengths.

Essential Song: I would be remiss if I didn't include all of their Side 1 Track 1's







Essential Live Video: Has to be the crowd favorite.  People just like to say "fuck."

Band of the Week - Playing Enemy

"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."