John Henry West – Door Bolted Shut LP/CD (Ebullition)
RECOMMENDED
Out of nowhere, and beating the race to 20 years since the band was active, Ebullition re-emerges as a label to release a discography of Bay Area ‘90s hardcore band John Henry West. This was Mike Kirsch’s project after Fuel and before Navio Forge, and featured Cory Lindstrum from End of the Line on vocals; they released one 7” on Gravity (one of the only releases on the label not to get repressed so many times) and blew through 50 shows in less than a year before moving on. They struck a very critical balance between full-on screamo/intensity/reciting extemporaneous statements between songs, and melodic punk/HC, fully conceding to one while working in upbeat riffs. None of this gets to be too heavy, which is fine – it was the youthquake personified, emanating from five guys who, as the liners state, “gotten most everything they needed out of the experience” of being a band, and then broke up without making a big deal out of it. The vinyl (purple marbled, even) fits in all of the studio tracks, including comp appearances and two unreleased outtakes, while the CD presents their demo, their last show at Gilman from 1993, and a radio set from a month prior. Each piece of media contains its own separate songs, so MP3 bloggers are going to have to do their work on this one. All three sets of tracks on the CD sound as if they could have been recorded on an answering machine, but you get the picture, and if you don’t, listen to Lindstrum’s speech before “Sell Yourself,” where he stakes the claim that this band was doing it because it had to be done, not for the money. I self-identify with that statement. It’s a blast of raucous, positive energy and it’s something I really miss in music. Guessing there are between 10 and 20,000 of these pressed. How far off am I? (http://www.ebullition.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
