Saturday, January 17, 2009

Put It In Writing

click for enlarged view

“The shot heard ‘round the world. The two best songs ever written by the best band in the world. Best guitar and bass playing and skin beating. The best lyrics ever sung. This record will change your life and give you a new start. Best packaging, easily. Genius. Mensa, mensa, mensa! Makes everybody else look real bad. Buy the shit out of this record.” - I dunno, some dude I guess

When I first heard about the Obits single last month and read the above blurb, I was a bit skeptical, so I went to the Obits page on MySpace to see if it was really worth checking out... and they didn't have either of the songs posted there, or on their Facebook either. Plus the record was sold out everywhere I looked except for busted-out Vinyl Collective, who were selling it for their usual nine dollars plus six dollars postage or whatever it is that they charge for a measly 7". Screw that, I figured, deciding that it wasn't worth it and I'd just wait for the LP or something.

Then last weekend I went to Redscroll, and wouldn't you know, they had a couple of copies. Turns out this thing is friggin' killer. Really, really good. (It's former Hot Snakes and Drive Like Jehu, if you didn't know.) So far, it's definitely the best 7" from 2008 that I didn't hear until 2009.

I won't post a download of this, since Comedy Minus One keeps their stuff digitally "in print" for just about infinity, but I will post both songs as listen-only files for everyone else who, like me, wants to hear what this sounds like before thinking about plunking down eight or nine bucks for it (it's being repressed, supposedly). I like the b-side better than the a-side, but that's how it usually goes with me anyway.

Obits -

"One Cross Apiece"

"Put It In Writing"

(these are listen-only files)


20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had the good fortune of seeing their inaugural show last year, and have seen them four or five times since. The best part of this band is how awesomely they betray their lineage (Pitchfork/Drive Like Jehu/Hot Snakes/Edsel/Shortstack) and wrangle their own sound. These aren't even their two best songs! There's going to be a full length coming out on Sub-Pop that'll make the kids faint on their parent's couches.

They struck me live as an evil Kinks, with alot of call and response lyrics going on. They're super-nice guys to boot, and seem to all have multidiscipline interests in art/design which is probably why this is the best looking record I've seen so far this year.

I've got about 50 photos of them and a few very short live clips, if anyone is into that kind of thing.

Brushback said...

Holy cow, sounds like you've got these guys nailed down. I'd love to see some photos, that's for sure.

Anonymous said...

Here they are in their unorganized glory! The ones with the lights overhead are from the first show at the Cake Shop in Manhattan..there are a few from the BAR show with The Vultures, and a bunch from Providence. I have a few more from another show, but can't find the disc! My kingdom for superior organizing skills!

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc204/audiofieldtrips/obits/

Brushback said...

Woah, they played at BAR with The Vultures?!? I totally missed that one.

I haven't been to a show at BAR in ages. Probably since '07.

Peter said...

This was really good. I think I'm going to try make their Bell House show in March.

Brushback said...

I suppose now's the time to see this band, because once all the yucksters find out it won't be such a fun crowd anymore.

Obits @ BAR on a Sunday w/maybe 10 other people = my kinda fun

Anonymous said...

Who said attendance reached double digits? :)

Peter said...

Yeah, I'm skeptical about that Bell House show. It could be infested, but fuck it, I gotta see how they bring it live.

spe-lunk-er2000 said...

It's not the vinyl, but everyone's here to download anyway...

http://www.emusic.com/album/7-7-MP3-Download/11307797.html

Brushback said...

Yeah, they can either buy it there, or at Comedy Minus One.

Good tip.

Brushback said...

Wait, people come here just for the downloads, and not for my hilarious anecdotes or the museum-quality photography?

This seriously bums my trip.

Anonymous said...

I come for the hand-written titlles under everything that'd make an architect weep..and the Prisonshake bias. Oh yeah...and the downloads!

spe-lunk-er2000 said...

Yea the hand written titles are awesome

chnkltgy said...

Wait til you hear the Sub Pop full length, Dave. The final song is as close to perfect as I've heard in a long, long time....

Brushback said...

...as Sub Pop maintains their track record of releasing one album worth buying each year (Pissed Jeans in '07, No Age in '08), thus keeping themselves slightly even with Matador in that regard.

chnkltgy said...

Haha, yeah, it's like their token "good" band amongst a sea of beardos trying to be Van Dyke Parks.

Anonymous said...

I was adding a Reducers comment, and forgot this point of local pride...I was talking to Sohrab from Obits about Edsel and other bands, and talk turned to 76% Uncertain, and he got VERY excited and called Rick Froberg over, and they both pretty much recited "Coffee Achievers" and "I Hate The Radio" word for word and took on the aura of excited kids..so I guess Connecticut managed to make a bit of a mental dent in the pre-internet world after all!

Brushback said...

Yeah, Coffee Achievers and I Hate The Radio were big "hits" back then-- not nearly on the same level as "Institutionalized", for instance, but kids in the scene definitely knew those songs...

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I immediately asked if it was because of the cuts off the Flipside video fanzine, but they said they had the actual LPs which was kind of cool..they asked me to point out if any of them showed up to the BAR show, but out of the 14 people, none of them were from the 76% roster!

Sohrab also told me that as a teenager, his hardcore band had come up and played New Haven, and I THINK he was talking about Rhymes..they tried to sell a bunch of demos or something. I wish I could remember the band name..I had never heard of them, but they had some funny name like "Cash Money Kids" or something.

Brushback said...

I've seen Todd at a couple of shows (mostly around Danbury), but I haven't seen anyone else from 76 lately... of course, Bill Knapp has that record label thing..