The Warmers - Wanted: More
(Dischord)
Think back for a moment to 1995. Fugazi had just released Red Medicine, their most adventurous album yet in their long career that was, at times, truly brilliant. Feeding off the excitement and energy from the musical and social powerhouse founded by Ian MacKaye, a renaissance of "post-punk" music was in full effect. Bands like The Monorchid, The Metamatics, The Crownhate Ruin, The Crainium, and The Warmers were at the center of one of the most important music scenes of the decade. Aside from their hometown and label, what all of these bands have in common is not their musical style but that none of them existed longer than a couple years. Washington D.C. has an uncanny ability to produce bands that break up far too soon resulting in a large number of amazing groups who never gave themselves the chance to enjoy much, if any, success.
Of all these bands The Warmers always seemed to be a good candidate for Most Likely to Succeed, opting to play more reserved and carefully composed music than many of their peers. The lone Warmers album was a terrific example of angular, understated rock with just a slight hint of punk and, at the time, was quite distinct from other bands. Nearly a decade later Dischord has released Wanted: More, six songs recorded at the famed Pirate House that were never completed until being mixed in 2003. While these six songs are good enough for me to vividly remember hearing them live, the whole record seems somewhat superfluous. The bass is mixed too low (bad news for a bass-driven band), the drumming is tentative and thin sounding, and it has never been more apparent that Alec MacKaye had no idea how to play guitar. Ultimately, Wanted: More sounds more like a demo than a finished product which makes Dischord's release of this somewhat questionable. The Warmers were great but six poorly recorded demos are hardly worth releasing after so much time has passed since the recording was made. The whole thing, right down to the out-of-order track list (come on, how hard is it to get six songs in the right order?), is sloppily made and somewhat tarnishes a loving and nostalgic memory.
That said, I am happy to have heard these recordings but I suspect most people will be far less forgiving, particularly if the listener doesn't have a preexisting interest in the band. It is yet another misstep in the increasingly marginalized world of Dischord Records. A label that once gave us Circus Lupus and Nation of Ulysses now has little more to offer than a reissue that very few people asked for or wanted. I'll still think of The Warmers and their mid-90s peers with fondness and affection but in the end I'd much rather dust off my old records than be exposed to a posthumous release that detracts from the band rather than reminding me of their greatness.
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