Monday, December 8, 2008

Season To Risk - In A Perfect World


Grunge-y 90's noise rawk/The Jesus Lizard worship from Kanass City, MS.

Swept up in what was the "Grunge" signing/feeding frenzy of the early 90's, Season To Risk seems far too ugly for a major label. Maybe Colombia big wigs just figured their melodies would get sweeter with time. No wonder they didn't know how to push this band. This is the second full length from this criminally underrated act and their final LP for Colombia. With producing credits going to Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Helmet, Unsane, Swans) and art credits going to Derek Hess, it only further complements S2R's rawest and darkest release. I remember not being overly fond of it myself at first being a big fan of their self titled debut. It was just so noisy and hard to distinguish the bass from the guitars. Oh, but how it grew on me like some sick, puss filled boil. It seemed to speak to my drunken, alienated, misguided late teenage self. You know, it still speaks to the early 30's version of that same asshole to this day. "Absolution", "Terrain Vague" and "Time Bomb" seem to stand out though I feel every song on here is a keeper. Grinding bent guitars, jagged, distorted bass rhythms and tight snappy drums lend themselves nicely to Steven Tulipana's poetic, fuzz box, carnival-barker ranting. Aptly titled "In A Perfect World"...indeed, in a perfect world this would be huge. 

Myself and a friend of mine at the time drove two hours in a snow storm to see them on tour for this album. Due to the weather, we ended up being the only two there. Well, besides the three misdirected middle agers that were sitting at a table in the back of the bar. The fact that they were only there for drinks and "atmosphere" became evident when they got up and left half way through S2R's second song. They played to "us" that night. The show might as well been in my living room. They played our request of  "Snakes" off the first album and  obliged us the favor years later at a far better attended show in the same town. Even though we almost died twice on the way, it was so worth it and remains to be one of my favorite concerts to this day.  

"...you will always feel this way."

There are also 127 copies on Amazon for a $.01 so pick up a hard copy you slacker!

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