Evergreen - S/T

Band: Evergreen

Title: S/T

Year: 1996

Label: Hi-Ball

Quick Note: This is not the Southern California Emo band. These guys were from Kentucky.

This band was active in the early and mid nineties Lousiville, Kentucky scene. This interested me, as great bands like Slint, Rodan and the extremely underrated Crain were prominent in this scene during that era. The album may be notable as Britt Walford plays drums on this recording. Walford is most well known for being in bands like Slint, The Breeders and the excellent Squirrel Bait (who I probably wouldn't have heard of if Kid Dynamite hadn't named themselves after one of their songs). Also, James Murphy helped record this album. Apparently he is famous for being in LCD Soundsystem and other such adventures but, I really don't care about that.

Throughout this 11 song LP, the band can sometimes sound like Fugazi trying to emulate the Mummies. The 8th track, "Glass Highway" is a perfect example of the post rock candor and garage like brevity evident on this album. Unlike their more serious contempories, Evergreen isn't afraid to just lay back and jam, with only a couple chords, simple drum beats and a couple "yeahs" shouted every now and then. The energy can be lacking, however. Even during their more rocking parts, Evergreen can come off as a little tired. Granted, if I lived in Louisville and was not 6 years old when this album came out, I would have loved to see these guys. They seem like a great band to see live (and maybe the energy would be more present in a live setting as well).

Though not in tune with the Slint like expectations that are racked with this band, they can pull off the sloppy, nineties garage sound very well. A song like "New York City" is both fantiastic in it's catchiness as it is in it's simplicity. Stuffed in with more complicated rhytmic driven songs, "New York City" can come off as a time to catch your breath and relax your brain. The noise like "Coyote" follows, getting you right back into the groove with it's vintage sounding noise and Jesus Lizard like vocal delivery.

Overall, I'd like to say that this is the reason I started doing this blog. I found a great band I probably wounldn't have otherwise heard of. Granted, for a post rock band, the album has little contruction and kind of just.....ends but, this means very little to me. With a record like this, I want to rid of any looming expectations and enjoy it for what it is. Fortunately, i did just that. I enjoyed the living hell out of it.

The LP is out of print as far as I know but, you can buy the CD re-issue (which includes 2 bonus tracks) from Temporary Residence: http://temporaryresidence.com/descriptions/trr64.php