CLASSICS OF LOVE – “S/T”
Let me botch an article of faith: I never connected with OPERATION IVY. Whatever baggage CLASSICS OF LOVE carries from Jesse Michaels’ earlier art is of little interest to me. What is of interest to me is in how much this thing shreds. There are shorter records, but Classics Of Love, occasionally has a chorus in it, and they’re repeated just enough to be cool and not beaten into the ground. As a whole, Classics Of Love is short, fast, dirty and awesome. It’s evident in Michaels’ opening raspy yell of “Singing!,” which sounds NOTHING like singing. It sets a tone and that tone is jeering. Excellent. As a register of disastisfaction with the Obama administration, it’s off the charts.
What makes CLASSICS OF LOVE special for me is just how… familiar they sound. I haven’t even owned the CD for longer than two weeks, but I feel like I’ve been listening to it for years. And sure, some of that sentiment is almost certainly the usual topics repeated, but there’s a liveliness to the affair that reminds of the hype around OFF!. Certainly, the story is the same: Singer from classic punk band teams up with a batch of young turks/hired guns (depending on your capacity for cynicism) and it results in a reinvigorating listening experience that stays almost religiously close to the template of the singer’s old band. This being Asian Man and not Vice, there won’t be the same Pitchfork valedictories, favorable media coverage comprised entirely of backhanded compliments or nationwide tours. This being Asian Man and not Vice, I bought the record for $8 postage paid from No Idea with the feeling that the money was going to a place that does not couch its love for the genre in jokey, face-saving distance.
But I digress. Michaels feels lied to and cheated in the promises of the Obama administration. And for punk bands, that’s often the most useful feeling to write a record around. And man, do Micheals and HARD GIRLS deliver. Speaking of which, HARD GIRLS, which I understand to be the backing band, fucking kills on this one . They’re versatile enough to drop ska rhythms when they make sense, but are also able to sound discordant and ominous. When they need to run, HARD GIRLS gallops. It feels real weird to say for fans of GOVERNMENT WARNING, SET TO EXPLODE, DEEP SLEEP and other bands who take a massive influence from old school, but that’s what this sounds like. That’s what it is. CLASSICS OF LOVE sounds like the best of the new guard of old-school punk bands because HARD GIRLS and Michaels never stopped taking it seriously in the first place.
I think that’s what’s awesome. CLASSICS OF LOVE isn’t just running with the pack, they’re leading it, and their enthusiasm is for the life of the genre, the new bands and for what surrounds them now and not for a nearly pornographic re-imaging of a time and place already buried.
