90 Day Men - (It (Is) It) Critical Band
(Southern)
90 Day Men is quite a pretentious band. That alone
is usually enough for me not to enjoy a band's music.
However, 90 Day Men is different than most pretentious
bands. 90 Day Men is trying to be pretentious; it is
part of their style. Most pretentious bands become
that way because of who they are; for 90 Day Men, it
seems to be just an act, like the Make-Up's gospel
preaching or Icebreaker's government funding. How
else can you explain the band calling themselves
"primadonnas" in "From One Primadonna to Another" or
a "critical band" in the album's title? A band that
is truly pretentious wouldn't call themselves out
on that.
90 Day Men is from Chicago, and their music fits in
well with US Maple and other no-wave bands of that
area that are bringing back rock music, only in a
looser, spastic form.
The looseness of the band's sound is due in
large part to Brian Case's lead vocals. Case's
voice is lazy and slurred and contrasts well with
the often frantic music. Also adding to the
loose quality of the sound is the low quality of
the recording. While in general it hurts the songs,
blurring notes and warbling tones,
it does give the album an overall sense of
urgency, much like a live album capturing a punk
band at their rawest.
For the most part, though, 90 Day Men
is less chaotic and odd than their Chicago no-wave
brethren. The rhythm of the band is tight and is
the driving force to the music. The band acts like
a dying, wobbling gyroscope, using all their energy
to try and keep the spinning rhythms going, gradually
losing out to friction. When all forces are aligned,
the band sounds quite like Blonde Redhead (also highly
influenced by no-wave) with its skittish drum
rhythms, jagged, repetitive guitar, and Sassy cute
band of the month aura (just check out the album cover).
There is little new wave warmth to 90 Day Men's music,
thoughas the band is more interested in harsh, abrasive
tones, mixing them like household chemicals, trying
to make rocket fuel out of Chlorox and ammonia.
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