Abilene - Two Guns, Twin Arrows
(54 40 or Fight)

The newer millennium finds Alex Dunham of Hoover leading the Chicago band Abilene. Abilene's self-titled album came out on Slowdime label a couple years back and was recorded only a few months after the band formed. As a result, the release was a bit uneven: a few songs were poweful rockers, delivered with an "in your face" vocal style, but the other songs were moody, half-done instrumentals. Abilene's new full length, Two Guns, Twin Arrows, finds the band tighter and more cohesive. And it also reunites Dunham with his old Hoover pal Fred Erskine.

While The Lurid Traversal of Route 7 won't get a two-cd reissue and get re-reviewed and re-appreciated, there's something better you can do to relive those long past glories. You can buy this goddam Abilene CD. On the bad side, time hasn't changed the Hoover boys very much. On the good side, time hasn't changed the Hoover boys very much. These are the same sounds which would later help define the "Louisville/Chicago sound" (odd given Hoover is from DC). The same dark, searing, powerful guitar sound. The same complex rhythms and liquid guitar and bass playing. The same depth-increasing use of space.

Erskine joins Abilene not to play bass but instead solely as a trumpet player. However, his trumpet playing is not merely a decoration; it is now an integral part of Abilene's sound. Some songs the trumpet carries the melody for extended portions, like in the album opening punch-in-the-face of "Twisting the Trinity." Some songs the trumpet is wrapped around Dunham's guitar, like in the scorching finale to "Blanc Fixe." Other times, it is warbling and humming, adding even more color or tension to an already dense composition.

While one could say that the addition of the trumpet lessens the impact of Dunham's vocals, that is more than made up for with the added density to the songs and the overall greater complexity and tightness to the arrangements. Dunham blasts into songs like "Fellini," screaming his lungs out. Earlier, that would be the most dominant sound in the song. However, now the guitar is even stronger and louder, the drums pound harder, and the trumpet injects a little humility, its softness evening out Dunham's pain and strain. With their second album, Abilene's songs now seem fully realized and fully balanced.

Perhaps I was mistaken when I called Bellini's Snowing Sun the last great 90s Touch and Go album. Abilene isn't that successful, but it's expertly crafted, dark and colorful. With artists like Abilene (who have now added Doug McCombs... imagine) and labels like 54'40" or Fight, perhaps the 90s Chicago sound will never leave us.

jim steed 2003 feb 21