__
//'\ __
\ \/ \
__\ \ \ __
/' \\__/\__/// \ __
/ /\\_\/\_\\__/\ _/ \_
\__/ / ` ; \_\/ ___ // /\
FiXIE\_\/ __ ___ //' \_// /__\ ___
_______________ _/ \_ _____ /' \_/ /, /~ \_// \_ ____________ _____
| // /____ /__ /\_ / / /╖ /__ :' |
. /, / \/ ; \_/~~ _ ___/\__ / / \ ____
/\ _/ _______/ / / \/ \/ _/\ \\ /\ '
_______ /__\\ ____) \ / /\ \ / \___.__/\\/ \ ________
| \ \\ \ \\___\__/\ /; \____/\__/~\ \ | \ \\ / ;
' \___\\__ _/\__\) | \ \ \__/ /\ \ \ \ \\_.cn/\_____\/ \/
| \ : \ \ . \_\/\ \ / \___\/\_\/~\ \ \ |
: \___\/ \_\/ `; \___\/ . __
__ / \
__ __//'\\__/\
// \ /' \ \\_\/
iS pROUD tO fiX yOU uP wiTH/ /\\ \__/\ |
\__/ / \ \_\/ .
\_\/ |\__/\
__ ` ' \_\/
/ \
__ __ / /_ __ __ __ __ __ __
/ \/: \/ /~ \/ \/ \ __ / \/ \/ \/ \
__ __ / /\__/ / /\__/ /_ /; \/ /\__/ /\__/
/ \/ \/ /- / / /- / /~ \/ / / :/ /-
/ /\__/\__/_ / /\__/_ \__/\__/\__/\__/ '\__/_
/ / | /~ \ \__/_ /~ \ | /~ \
\__/ ╖ \__/ /~ \ \__/ , __ \__/
\__/ / \ __ __ __ __
_\__/_ / \/| \/ \__/ \
/ ~\/~ \/ / . /\__/ \__/_
/ / / / /~~\ \__/_/~ \
\__/ /\__/ /\__/ /~ \__/
\__/ \__/ ; \__/
:
aRTiST...: Modern Life is War
aLBUM....: Stagger Lee
gENRE....: Hardcore
lABEL....: Equal Vision Records
lANGUAGE.: English
yEAR.....: 2007
cATNR....: evr142-1
sOURCE...: 7" Vinyl
riP.dATE.: 03-18-2024
sTR.dATE.: 08-21-2007
eNCODER..: FLAC 1.3.1
sETTiNG..: compression-level-8
qUALiTY..: 2882kbps Avg 96.0kHz 2 channels
__
__ __ /| \__ __
/: \ __ __ __ __ __ / \ / ` / \ __ __ // \
/ ' / / \/ \/; \ / \/' \/ /_ / /\__/_ /` \/ \/' /
/ /_ / /\__/ /_ / /\__/ /~ \/ /~~\/~ \/ /\__/ /_
/ /~ \/ / / /~ \/ / __/ /___/ / / / / / /~ \
/ /\__/\__/ \__/\__/\__/_/ \__/~ \/ /\__/\__/\__/ / /\__/
\__/_ `; /~ __/ \__/\__/_ `: \__/_ |
/~ \ \__/ : /~ \ . /~ \ ,
\__/ \__/ \__/
:
`
A1 Stagger Lee 4:09
B1 The Motorcycleboy Reigns 2:13
tOTAL siZE.: 2 Files/137.9MB/06:22 min
__
/| \
__ __ / , /_ __ __ __ __ __ __
/ \/ \/ /~ \/ \/ \ __ /: \/ \/ \/ \
__ __ / /\__/ / /\__/ /_ / \/ /\__/ /\__/
/ \/ \/ /- / / /- / /~ \/ / / / /- |
/ /\__/\__/_ / /\__/_ \__/\__/\__/\__/ \__/_ ;
/ / `: /~ \ \__/_ /~ \ ; __ /~ \
\__/ \__/ /~ \ \__/ / \ \__/
|' \__/ __ / / __ __ __ __
` `; __ __/ \ / /_ / \/ \__ / \/ \
__ /| \/ \__/_ / /~ \/ /\__/ \/ /\__/
/ \/ ' /\__/_/~ \/ /\__/ /- / / / ;
/ / / /~ \__/\__/_ \__/_ \__/\__/
/ /\__/ \__/ /~ \ /~ \ `|
\__/ : \__/ \__/ .
`
Modern Life is War are flirting with a backlash. Plenty of people
hated Witness despite the fact that it upped the ante on My Love. My
Way. like a gambler splashing the pot, with songs that stood taller,
lingered in your head longer, and cut like a Bowie knife (i.e.
through human flesh). But still we hear the same old line about how
everything was better back then, like a Judeo-Christian creation
myth adapted for whiny punk rockers: linear time and new records
only take us further from some Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve
trade test pressings and monkey wrench their fixed gear bikes at the
vegan potluck.
So of course, being the contrary son of a bitch that I am, I wanted
this to be the greatest album ever, just so I could rub all the
naysayers' faces in it like a puddle of puppy piss. I find myself
rooting for Modern Life is War: maybe it's their outsider
authenticity (few bands have seemed more like a S.E. Hinton novel
come to life), or their killer live shows, or the way that they
alienated cringe-inducing post-punk wannabes Some Girls, but I find
them an easy band to go to bat for. And so I wanted this record to
be the ne plus ultra of Modern Life is War records, a white-hot,
proletarian punk rock pipe bomb, wiping smirks off faces and
inspiring much bedroom moshing across America.
And the truth is that, at first, it sounds like a disappointment.
Where Witness sounded bulletproof and hungry, Midnight in America
feels broken and disjointed, a set of bleak, frustrated dirges that
crawl to nowhere, building up but rarely catching fire. The album's
sense of frustration comes out even in the vocal phrasing, which is
often surprisingly awkward compared to past records. Singer Jeffrey
Eaton has always written dense, literate lyrics, but here you can
almost hear him struggling to pack his lines into these misshapen
songs as they rumble by in fits and starts. (There's also a few more
backing vocals than I would like; Eaton's strangled shout is so
perfect for this band that anything else feels out of place.)
Which is not to say it's a bad record; far from it. Appropriately,
the album's highlight is the song that's already alienated plenty of
message board tastemakers: "Stagger Lee." Modern Life is War
contribute much more to the American folk idiom than Nick Cave's
cabaret grotesquerie or The Clash's world music jive: their "Stagger
Lee" is a chugging black hole, baleful as hell and sounding the way
a song about murder should, with vocalist/method actor Jeffrey Eaton
growling his way through an icy, slate-grey landscape of sin and
vice. Simply calling it a cover misses the point; as much as anybody
who's picked up the amorphous folktale, Modern Life is War make
Stagger Lee's story their own. No other song on the record hits its
mark nearly so well.
One of the best things about MLIW has always been Jeffrey Eaton's
lyrics, and he rabble-rouses like Huey Long here, carving a real
niche for himself as a poet of youthful spiritual malaise in
post-industrial industrial America. (I can easily see young punks
getting hip to this record and faking proletarian, in the
time-honored tradition.) I've got a real soft spot for "These Mad
Dogs of Glory," where Eaton raises a glass to his spiritual
predecessors, ranging from Sylvia Plath to Federico Garcia Lorca.
Unlike many lyricists, when Eaton salutes his literary heroes, it
actually feels natural and unaffected?it's worlds away from The Hold
Steady name-dropping Sal Paradise, a move that may well be
completely sincere but nonetheless feels designed to win over rock
critics with English degrees. (As ever, Eaton seems uninterested in
trying to impress anybody: how many punks are really going to give a
shit about Lorca's death at the hands of Francoists in the early
days of the Spanish Civil War?)
Midnight in America is definitely the kind of record whose
dimensions grow with each listen, and in all honesty very few other
punk bands are capable of making such focused, personal statements.
But it's nonetheless a mixed bag, sounding like Modern Life is War
are feeling out the contours of their own aesthetic, sometimes
succeeding ("Stagger Lee", the churning "Big City Dream", the
grueling-but-expansive title track) and sometimes not - songs like
"Humble Streets" work up a skillful-but-monotone rage that sounds a
lot more boilerplate than this band's best work would ever lead you
to expect. It isn't a bad record, but it's a difficult one because
I'm convinced this band can do better, like the crusty mentor who
always gives the most grief to his favorite student.
But like Bruce Wayne once said of Harvey Dent, I believe in Modern
Life is War. Midnight in America isn't the masterstroke I was hoping
for, but it's still a gutsy, impassioned album that unmasks a lot of
today's so-called hardcore for the emotionally tawdry and contrived
tripe that it is. Besides, I'm sure the band would instruct their
detractors to take a page from anti-antiquarian anthem "Fuck the Sex
Pistols": "We don't care what you think. We don't care what you say.
You don't get to decide."
uRL: https://www.discogs.com/release/3052211
__
__ __ __ __ __ __ /: \ __ __
__ / \/ \/| \/ \/ \/ \/ . / __ /; \/ \
__/' \ / /\__/ ' /\__/ /\__/ /_ / \/ /\__/
// __// / / /- / /- / /~ \/ / / :
/ / __\__/ \__/_ \__/_ / /\__/\__/\__/
/ /__/ ~\ /~ \ /~ \ \__/_ |
\__/~ ___/ \__/ \__/ /~ \ ,
\__/ `; `: \__/
'
+ iTS + FREGON + FLACME + SDR + NOiR + AUDiOFiLE + NRE +
+ FNT + FAiNT +
oUR gOOD fRiENDS aND siTEOPS aROUND tHE wORLD wHO giVE
uS sUPPORT aND lOYALTY
wE lOVE yOU aLL <3
__
/ \ __
__ \__/\ __ __ /; \
__ // \ \_\/ // \ __ /: \ / /\
__ / \/' /\ __ / ;\ /╖ /\ __ __ /' \/ , /\ __ / /_/ __
/ \/ / /~~\/ \/ /\ / /~~\/ \/ \/ / /~~\/ `\/ /~ \/ \
:__/\__/\__/ /\__/ /~~\/ / /\__/ / / / /\__/ / /\__/\
|\_\/\_\/\/ / /\_\__/ / / / /\_\__/\__/\__/\__/ /\_\__/\__/ /\_\/
` / / / \/ /\__/\__/ / \_\/ \_\/\_\/ \_\/\_\/ |
\__/ / / / /\_\/\_\/chemicalreaction ╫ impure194o.cn .
\_\/ \__/ /FiXIE (c) 2o12-2o24 & beyond __
`; \_\/ / \
__ \__/\
/ \ \_\/
\__/\ :
\_\/ '