Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Past Lives Ultimate Focus

It’s rare that I get that excited about particular bands anymore. I listen to records at home endlessly... Go out to shows on weeknights... I live in music all the time. But that kind of curiosity isn't easily sustained. Lesser music loses its mystery quickly...

However, Past Lives has re-ignited some serious fire. This is a dream band, performing like no other, past or present.


Personally, I see Past Lives as the ultimate culmination of a scene originally rooted in pure screaming energy...

Maybe Drive Like Jehu really did spark the San Diego underground... The Eighties ended, and something was smoldering in Southern California. Basements and halls split with sound. Whatever you want to call it, the music was searing, youthful and handmade. Brown-bagged records and tapes, traded from milk-crates, appeared almost exotic in their plainness. The music was quick and chaotic, and it caught like wildfire across the Xerox-underground.

But when national attention came, it was Seattle’s Blood Brothers who truly amplified the sound to major (label) proportions, perpetually grounding the hype with their DIY-backbone.

Past Lives expand upon that exploratory vein, crafting a sound intelligently streamlined over a ten-year period of constant musical activity. I’ve seen nearly every one of their Seattle shows, and remain amazed at the band’s execution of fresh ideas. Their full-length album – now in the works – will be a masterpiece.

[Al]

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