Misery seeks tragedy
To begin with, a word on how this thing looks: Barren. I know. And, well, that's not going to change anytime soon. I know y'all like the pictures and y'all like the links, but right now I don't really have the time to worry about that. You're just goint to have to do with the music for now.
Which brings me to today's update. For a while in the late nineties, bands from the San Diego area had a pretty big influence on what kids in ol' Germany where doing; the looks, the artwork and also the music, as sort of a lead-in to the even more stylized screamo-ish music that started to get popular shortly thereafter. Kids were all over bands like Swing Kids, The Crimson Curse, Festival of Dead Dear, the mighty Unbroken and of course The Locust, resulting in many imitators and a few bands that tried to expand on the SoCal sound. Unlike bands like The Coleman Quintet, who went more with the swing angle, June's Tragic Drive were one of the bands that picked up on the more serene and stripped down aspects of what the San Diego bands were doing. If you like the last two Unbroken eps, you're probably going to be into what June's Tragic Drive did in their prime.
June's Tragic Drive consisted mostly of former members of Steadfast, who changed their name after one of the members died in a car accident. Perhaps owing in part to this private strategy, both their sound and lyrics took a definite dive for the bleak, with lines like "sometimes loneliness just won't leave you alone" ('Goodbye January') or the mixture of humility and self-deprecation in 'Sunday Evening Thoughts' that culminates in the gut-wrenching lines of the chorus, "this is today and tomorrow is a lie." It's naked misery reaching for the bottom and, once that bottom is found, stomping on it, trying to hold on to these moments "because tomorrow they are gone." Some damn fine post-break-up music, I tell ya.
The recording history of June's Tragic Drive was sporadic and not very long-lived. Below you will find one pretty old and simple, but yet fairly powerful song called 'emptyman' that appeared on the Rhythm, Rhyme and Reason 7" comp on makahannya haramita shingyo as well as both songs from a split they did with Enfold, out on Tomte Tumme Tott. Those two songs, also quoted above, represent the height of their creative realization for me. It's raw, no question about that, but heavy as fuck. The only later recordings I am aware of are a self-titled 7", also on Tomte Tumme Tott (with an awesome handmade cover) and one song on the About Life... full-length comp on React with Protest. While good recordings in their own right, they started to draw on other influences (the s/t record sounds a lot like a more rocked out The Swarm - i.e. Cursed, before Cursed existed as a band) and I think they could have been fantastic records if the material was just a tad more cohesive and the recording better. Good stuff and worth checking out nonetheless. In fact, I think you might still be able to get many of these records from smaller European distros. Members of June's also went on to play in the much more grindy Cheerleaders of the Apocalypse, who put out a discography LP not too long ago, also on React with Protest, that should be fairly easy to find.
June's Tragic Drive - emptyman
June's Tragic Drive - Goodbye January
June's Tragic Drive - Sunday Evening Thoughts
Which brings me to today's update. For a while in the late nineties, bands from the San Diego area had a pretty big influence on what kids in ol' Germany where doing; the looks, the artwork and also the music, as sort of a lead-in to the even more stylized screamo-ish music that started to get popular shortly thereafter. Kids were all over bands like Swing Kids, The Crimson Curse, Festival of Dead Dear, the mighty Unbroken and of course The Locust, resulting in many imitators and a few bands that tried to expand on the SoCal sound. Unlike bands like The Coleman Quintet, who went more with the swing angle, June's Tragic Drive were one of the bands that picked up on the more serene and stripped down aspects of what the San Diego bands were doing. If you like the last two Unbroken eps, you're probably going to be into what June's Tragic Drive did in their prime. June's Tragic Drive consisted mostly of former members of Steadfast, who changed their name after one of the members died in a car accident. Perhaps owing in part to this private strategy, both their sound and lyrics took a definite dive for the bleak, with lines like "sometimes loneliness just won't leave you alone" ('Goodbye January') or the mixture of humility and self-deprecation in 'Sunday Evening Thoughts' that culminates in the gut-wrenching lines of the chorus, "this is today and tomorrow is a lie." It's naked misery reaching for the bottom and, once that bottom is found, stomping on it, trying to hold on to these moments "because tomorrow they are gone." Some damn fine post-break-up music, I tell ya.
The recording history of June's Tragic Drive was sporadic and not very long-lived. Below you will find one pretty old and simple, but yet fairly powerful song called 'emptyman' that appeared on the Rhythm, Rhyme and Reason 7" comp on makahannya haramita shingyo as well as both songs from a split they did with Enfold, out on Tomte Tumme Tott. Those two songs, also quoted above, represent the height of their creative realization for me. It's raw, no question about that, but heavy as fuck. The only later recordings I am aware of are a self-titled 7", also on Tomte Tumme Tott (with an awesome handmade cover) and one song on the About Life... full-length comp on React with Protest. While good recordings in their own right, they started to draw on other influences (the s/t record sounds a lot like a more rocked out The Swarm - i.e. Cursed, before Cursed existed as a band) and I think they could have been fantastic records if the material was just a tad more cohesive and the recording better. Good stuff and worth checking out nonetheless. In fact, I think you might still be able to get many of these records from smaller European distros. Members of June's also went on to play in the much more grindy Cheerleaders of the Apocalypse, who put out a discography LP not too long ago, also on React with Protest, that should be fairly easy to find.
June's Tragic Drive - emptyman
June's Tragic Drive - Goodbye January
June's Tragic Drive - Sunday Evening Thoughts
posted by sabeth at 8:42 PM
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