| j.hall wrote on Mon, 15 October 2007 12:46 |
http://www.myspace.com/thrice
self produced, recorded in their house.....
i've never been a thrice fan (keep in mind i haven't heard much either) but this is AWESOME.
i'll be buying these 4 records!
what do you guys think?
|
Hey Jason,
I have been a Thrice fan for a long time. From a pure sonics perspective "Illusion of Safety" is their best record, mostly because it was only half crushed in mastering. Their two Island Records releases ("Artist in the Ambulance" and "Vheissu") are hammered horribly. I suspect that you would find both "Illusion..." and "Artist in the Ambulance" competent exercises in emocore.
"Vheissu," the second of Island records, is more interesting interesting music composition wise, sort of in the same way that Muse stretched their wings on Black Holes and Revelations. Thrice's core fan base didn't really get that record, and they were probably dropped as a result.
The thing that has always set Thrice apart from their peers, for me, is Dustin's unusually literate lyrical abilities. Dustin has strong personal religious beliefs (not share by other band members), and consistently brings a tremendous amount of philosophical allusion, allegory, and thinking man's tidbits to his writing. He writes about belief, struggles in faith, etc. with a level of insight and clarity that the folks who write supposedly religious music could learn from. Thrice liners are definitely worth reading if you are in a mood to think.
I think the band has done a great job for a self-produced/recorded/mixed project. Teppei is not Bob Clearmountain, but I think he should be proud of his mix efforts on the two released discs (more so on Water).
I strongly suggest going to see Thrice live. They put on a really solid live show. The have their own IEM monitor rack that they run themselves from the stage, as a live mixer/system tech, I find that quite impressive! They are currently on tour with Brand New. BN's monitor engineer is a friend of mine, and he says the tour is going great so far. Given that BN has also moved pretty far from their origins, it seems an appropriate combination.
Dustin Kensrue, Thrice's lead singer, also has released a decent side project under his own name that is in the vein of Springsteen or Ryan Adams. I suspect the Earth record will be a lot like this (mostly acoustic blues/roots rock).
I personally will be very curious to see what the typical fresh-faced, Warped Tour-lovin' Thrice fan will make of having 4 CDs that span such a diverse swath of music, especially when only one of those discs will be the heavier sound these guys have built their career on.
