Eleventh Dream Day - Prairie School Freakout (W/Cdrom)
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Artist: Eleventh Dream DayEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2003-10-07
Music Label: Thrill Jockey
Soundtracks:
- Watching the Candles Burn
- Sweet Smell
- Coercion
- Driving Song
- Tarantula
- Among the Pines
- Through My Mouth
- Beach Miner
- Death of Albert C. Sampson
- Life on a String
- Tenth Leaving Train
- Southern Pacific
- Go
Music reviews of Prairie School Freakout (W/Cdrom)
Music Review: Debut LP from one of America's best indie bands
Rating: 4 Stars
The liner notes to the original album that I bought back in '88 explained that after trying half the night to fix the amp buzz, the band gave up and went ahead with a pretty much live-to-tape run-through of their set list. The results should have propelled them to the forefront of late 80s alternative/ college rock, when that term was still a helpful category where talented and innovative Americn indie bands could be found. Like X, the male-female vocals and the roots influences mesh with a punkier, guitar-heavy squall, a propulsive rhythm section, and poetic and intelligent lyrics.
This album did gain the band attention of A&M and their next three records were issued on the major label. They then were dropped in the post-Nirvana purge for not being grunge, I suppose, and their later albums, sadly as a trio for the most part, on the Chicago label Thrill Jockey mix their earlier noisier attack with a more post-rock, Tortoise-influenced production (and a producer from that band) that layers electronics, keyboards, and treated instruments to haunting effect. Their first four records, however, expand on what PSF-out builds: Neil Young meets punk, ten years after the Pistols, when countryish and classic rock and psychedelic influences were allowed to enter into bands' sounds.
A couple of songs I find slightly annoying; Rick Rizzo's voice tends to declaim rather than carry a tune, and this works better on the faster songs than the slower tunes. Rizzo does like his Neil Y, spiraling, sprawling approach, and sometimes (as I admit with Young himself), the freedom given him to jam does wear on. The more concise, tighter, catchier songs I favor, on this as all their fine records in the fifteen years since. Often, these tend to be dominated by Janet Beveridge Bean's drumming and a voice which carries a more countryish tinge (she also sang with Freakwater) that gives variety and necessary depth to play off Rizzo's sprawling guitar. In turn Rizzo's tendency to stretch out is pitted against Baird Figi's more rigid, confined, and controlled discipline on his guitar. Figi seems to keep Rizzo in check. The two guitarists work well together coming from different directions; Douglas McCombs on bass has always contributed efficient and understated backing that subtly keeps Rizzo also moving forward rather than in circles! The four musicians sound even on this debut full-length as if they have been playing as a unit for a long time. This recording is a great advance from their previous, eponymous EP, which sounds markedly unremarkable by comparison. The band made a great leap forward on Prairie School Freakout.
The reissue on Thrill Jockey contains the band's other and earlier EP, Wayne, but this only adds two tracks added to the original ten on the LP. Three songs appear in video form on the bonus disc. The album itself (reissued with notes by all concerned) it seems has not been remastered. The primitive hiss of the original one-nighter recording, I argue, should remain unpolished! Its determined DIY confidence and uncompromising pace remind me of the SST days when Husker Du laid down Zen Arcade! The antithesis of digital cleansing, and all the more reason to celebrate the EDD LP's resurrection on CD, contrarily!
This album balances both loud eruptions and soft moments well. Few albums persist from this era that stand up so well. Along with Yo La Tengo and New Radiant Storm King, EDD have endured and kept true to their post-punk integrity combined with an increasingly sophisticated aesthetic, while enriching their sounds and refusing to sell out. They have matured well, but on this first LP already show they have what it takes for the long fight fought well on the edge where critical acclaim and a few discerning listeners enables them to soldier on. "Among the Pines" remains one of my favorite tracks from this period of indie rock: it tells a story, it conveys passion, and it carries emotion that convinces you it's genuine art and not feigned pose.
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Description of Prairie School Freakout (W/Cdrom)
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