Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Let it be known, that the perfect position at a 400 Blows show requires one to be an earlobe's length from Christian's stack, punching distance from Skot's free hand, and a groupie's measurement away from the stage in order to drool at Ferdinand's physical assault of his drumkit. It's taken me nearly ten years and a few flesh wounds to figure this out but I think I got it now. A few weeks back the Blows played a midnight show at Hanging Jury with the lovely From Monument To Masses, officially kicking off the promotion of their stunning new album "Angel's Trumpets and Devil's Trombones," out May 9th on GSL.
I love this record. You have to feel for any producer who has to capture the minimalistic grandeur of the Blows, but Alex Newport (At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta) manages to pull it off. All the things we love about this band (Skot's frenetic wailing, Christian's ruthless chromatics, and Ferdinand's snarled brutality) are in tact and it all comes through with the right amount of aggression one would hope for... There is not one soft spot on this album but "Make A Wish," "The Average Guy," and "The World Was Yours," are some of the best post-punk/hardcore tracks I've ever heard period. I assure you, there will not be very many records this year better than this one. Maybe even none.
