The Prids - Something Difficult -EP- (c) 2007 Five03 Records
Artist....: The Prids
Album.....: Something Difficult
Type......: EP
Source....: CDDA
Tracks....: 04
Genre.....: Indie
Label.....: Five03 Records
Catalogue#: F03 PR02
Encoder...: LAME 3.97
Quality...: VBR kbps / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
URL.......: http://www.theprids.com
Tracklist:
----------
01 Something Difficult 03:56
02 One Thousand Five 02:57
03 Molest The Outer Heart 02:04
04 Motor Away 02:13
Total:15,4 MBB / 11:10 min
Release Notes:
--------------
Imagine the sound of listening to your favorite band on headphones
while halfway between the 23rd floor and the ground via the balcony and
you may have just a fraction of an idea of what it is to hear The Prids
bashing out articulate, gloomy post-punk in some dark club, some late
night, in some lame town.
Until the World is Beautiful is a follow up to the band's 2003 debut
LP, Love Zero. Nailing down the heart-bursting experience of a Prids'
live show, the band's latest record is an exponential build on all the
things David Frederickson (vocals, guitar, pompadour) and Mistina Keith
(bass, vocals, tough-as-nails) have been affected by in rock 'n' roll -
music that is drunk on sadness, finds beauty in letting go, and keeps
hope alive when things fall apart. Built on the foundations of obscure
British post-punk (The Sound, early Wire, Comsat Angels), Until the
World is Beautiful hits square in the chest. Seething keyboards,
chiming guitars, fuzzed-out, melodic basslines, and hushed guy/girl
vocals all buzz together to tug at the deeper roots of loss and living
as hard as possible.
The story of The Prids goes like this...David found salvation after
hearing Louder Than Bombs at one of the houses he used to crash at when
he was just another messed up teenager kicked onto the street by his
folks and mixed up in drugs and petty crime. He starts writing songs
and playing guitar almost immediately. Later, Mistina sees David lead a
so-so pop band through a set of songs at a house show in Missouri in
the mid '90s. Without ever picking up an instrument in her life, she
convinces him that he should ditch those losers, walk hand-in-hand to
the nearest pawnshop, buy cheap guitars and start a band. In another
decade, instead of forming The Prids, David and Mistina would have
boosted a car and left a wake of knocked-over banks from there across
the dustbowl.
They bounce around the backwaters of Midwest scenes - Lincoln and
Omaha, Nebraska, and Saint Joseph, Missouri - before landing in
Portland, Oregon in the late '90s.
Somewhere in between, David and Mistina fell in love, got married and
got divorced. They still live together in a sprawling, isolated house
(referred to as either 'The Compound' or, less seriously, 'Castle
Sadmore' by the same wide-eyed fans that sell out clubs and choke the
band's myspace site) surrounded by mud and trees and bursting with
gear, obscure British post-punk vinyl, Kurt Vonnegut paperbacks and
Morrissey posters.
Unlike the majority of bands on the scene, The Prids have never been a
weekend project in the way that Van Gogh or Hemingway were never
weekend hobbyists. While middle class trustfund bands were
contemplating their next hairstyle in the suburbs, Mistina and David
were giving each other prison-style Prids' tattoos with sewing needles.
While other bands start as a way to kill time before getting accepted
to the right grad schools, David and Mistina - neither of whom bothered
with college or even graduating high school - are in this for life.
If you don't hear this just below the surface of Until the World is
Beautiful - a poignant, loud album by a band tearfully aware that there
will always be something equally brutal and beautiful about life - you
aren't listening.