Review Summary: Hopefully coming to a state fair near you.
Possibly true hypothesis: A better overall economy leads to a more creative music industry. I say this because back in 1990s everyone was in a band. Wall Street was booming, unemployment was down, people still bought music, and labels had so much money Thurston Moore had permission to sign any band he wanted while the Beastie Boys had million dollar album advances with almost no supervision. In what other era would Primus, Public Enemy, Unwound, and the Jesus Lizard all have been able to tour together? The variety and amount of music people were exposed to then was at a historically high level.
I write all this because Archers of Loaf were very much a band of their time. They began in ‘92 and had moderate success with their first record as somewhat of a Pavement clone. However they took advantage of the opportunity and eventually switched to a major label and were able throughout their career to release three more records. However each being slightly less successful as the band pushed themselves to build and refine their own sound which became less amiable for the average listener with each passing album.
By the time 1998 came around the band was creating White Trash Heroes and were fairly disillusioned with their situation. Having not enjoyed the promotion for their 3rd album, the group later admitted this fourth record would be their final attempt at success as members of this band. Usually when a band can tell the end is near their next record can go one of two ways. Make as many radio friendly tracks as you can in hopes for your big break ala Steve Miller or you can dig into the creative process and make the album you want to leave as your legacy. (see Fugazi) Luckily AoL took the latter tactic and created their most impressive, if least popular, album.
The band followed the unique path they had been tinkering with on their previous albums only taking it further than before seemingly bored with traditional album motifs. They experiment with song structure as well as instrumentation like synthesizers and keys which they had never used before as well as vocal effects. Not to be overlooked is the, at times incredibly abrasive guitar playing making these songs somewhat impalpable. Rumor is that some of the band members didn’t even like all the tracks but the dichotomy between these songs is one of the strengths of the album.
Lyrically there are a few themes the appear throughout the album. The main talking point deals with the observance of the southern strife. Unsurprisingly with the bands’ North Carolina roots they have a certain revery for this lifestyle. There seems to be a respect for the day to day struggles of the individual who may occasionally fall victim to their vices as a way to just persevere. These activities aren’t looked down on or judged therefore making the title of album not a sarcastic insult but a legitimate form of praise.
Another interesting concept is timing.
“There is no perfect time
too fast or slow
standard versus stroll
There is no perfect time. There is no perfect place.”
“Let's fall behind in perfect time.
Won't you stay a while? We're counting on you”
Brought up several times the concept of ‘right time and place’ suggests that life in general is incompatible with timing but on a rare occasion things are able to line up just right and those are the moments worth remembering.
“We can ride along in perfect time
Or speeding past, collide and crashing, I'm in paradise.”
Finally I want to give a shout out lead singer Eric Bachmann for his vocal range on this album. Being able to alternate between a Mark Lanegan baritone to his more common rough falsetto and even a couple songs of just guttural wails makes this by far the most impressive performance of his career. The incredibly cathartic title track and Banging on a Dead Drum are good examples of the vocal diversity.
Its easy to see why this band never made it big like many of its contemporaries. No more were they mere Pavement copies. They had evolved and now featured a nasty sound all their own. Even with their most interesting effort they would never achieve anything more than a cult following. But in that 90’s that's what most bands were comfortable doing. You never saw Morphine or Quicksand trying to do anything other than what they were good at to fit in, and honestly its much better for a band to go out at their creative peak than to stick around and wallow in mediocrity.
