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JUNO / DISMEMBERMENT PLAN ARTICLE
2001 was a good year for the humble electric guitar. The thrilling twin-pronged retro assault of The Strokes and The White Stripes re-established rock's cool factor. Of course, that they looked great undoubtedly helped ensure their ubiquity, but slash through all the media hype and extraneous bullshit and there were at the core some genuinely exciting songs. And with the seemingly incessant waves of goateed nu-metal acts washing over MTV and the charts, and an early-2002 issue of 'NME' dedicated to the 'new' emo ('emotional hardcore') phenomenon, all eyes are focused hungrily on America for the first time since grunge burned itself out. And yet, amidst the media frenzy, some of 2001's most fascinating rock releases have remained undeservedly obscured from view - perhaps most undeservedly of all, The Dismemberment Plan's 'Change' and Juno's 'A Future Lived In Past Tense'. When pressed in 'NME' for his views on the existence of an emo movement, punk stalwart J Robbins of the band Burning Airlines claimed: "It's just marketing bullshit. I don't really care about the next big thing, to be honest. I'm more into buried treasures." It's tempting to suggest that he had his DeSoto labelmates and friends Juno and The Dismemberment Plan in mind. 'Change' is Washington DC based four-piece The Dismemberment Plan's fourth LP, the follow-up to 1999's astonishing 'Emergency & I'. A brilliantly creative cocktail of playfully frenetic grooves and understated sentiments, quirky in the best sense of the word, the album resolutely resists any neatly convenient categorisation. Indeed, such is its freshness and invention that it almost defies description altogether. Eric Axelson (guitar / keyboards) reflects: "I think we're inventive and ambitious, but we don't sit around thinking about how to be that way." The Dismemberment Plan's sound, Eric explains, is down to their catholic tastes. "We all listen to tons of music, everything from top 40 to underground hip-hop to punk to alternative country music. Everything, literally. And I think that's what makes us sound ambitious to people. But that's probably what happens when you're trying to write songs that sound like Kylie Minogue and Roni Size and The Band all at the same time." For Seattlites Juno, who count Nate Mandel of Foo Fighters among their rotating cast of bass players, 'A Future Lived In Past Tense' is the second full-length release, a sublime epic for both the heart and the head which welds the firebrand intensity of punk rock to Pink Floyd's imagination and devil-may-care attitude towards conventional forms and song lengths. Like The Dismemberment Plan's 'Change', Juno's latest LP gradually reveals its complexities, depths and subtle nuances over the course of repeated listens. And all of it unlike anything you've heard before. Both Juno and The Dismemberment Plan have their origins in the post-hardcore underground, but have refused to allow themselves to become anchored in any definable scene. In many ways, even punk itself, originally a progressive genre, has come to represent an artificially narrowed mindset. Juno's Arlie Carstens (guitar / vocals) confesses: "I grew up a straight-edge kid and for a while I was terribly musically and socially narrow-minded. I still don't drink or take drugs but after about age 19 I couldn't give a flying fuck at a rolling donut about straight-edge 'values'. Even in the progressive world of punk rock there are outmoded, narrow-minded conventions that need to be challenged." "No question about it, narrow-mindedness equals bad", adds Arlie's bandmate Gabe Carter (guitar / keyboards). "When any genre of music has been around for any length of time it becomes subject to conservative and progressive movements." Arlie is quite unequivocal about the need for innovation and open-mindedness: "We have to keep inventing and reinventing the art form in order for it to feel new and creative. Without new directions and challenges to our creativity it will no longer continue to have meaning in our lives." Far from embracing an unscrupulously careerist mentality, Arlie nevertheless stresses the importance of ambition and self-belief. "Sadly, I'm pretty sure that ambition is usually considered a dirty word in American indie rock circles, which is a shame. People constantly downplay their ambitions for fear of being accused of believing in themselves and their effort. For Juno, I'd say that ambition is a constant balancing act between just enjoying the music we make while at the same time knowing that it doesn't mean anyone else has to; to always being ambitious enough to keep doing it for our own intrinsic fulfilment, regardless of shifts in popular culture or underground opinion." Given their affinities with Juno and determination in ploughing a similarly unique furrow, Eric might well agree that this is also true for The Dismemberment Plan. While Juno and The Dismemberment Plan might have the integrity and self-belief to let fashions and trends wash around them, they have nevertheless found themselves unjustly tagged with the 'emo' label - much to their understandable annoyance. "Stereotypically, as far as I can tell, 'emo' bands are filled with boys singing in warbly voices about girls, and / or how upset they are to grow up and find out that dating and love are sometimes, gosh, a little difficult", says Arlie. "Bands that are decidedly not writing pop songs filled with 'emo' themes are being swept right along in the undertow with this new 'emo' fascination." Gabe agrees: "I've never felt our band has had anything to do with the emo movement. It's been our mission the last few years to drive a stake in the heart of emo." For Eric, the whole concept of an emo movement is a media construction more about fashion than music: "I think if the press would quit writing the word, it would disappear. In my head it's kind of a fashion of glasses and backpacks and Converse low tops and cardigans." But - regardless of those bands who will inevitably leap eagerly on the bandwagon, and concerns that others are being conveniently packaged and pigeonholed for mainstream marketing and consumption - will the current exposure prove beneficial or damaging in the long term, when the media have moved on to pastures new? Gabe is optimistic. "I have to side in favour of it being a good thing", he ventures. "There are so many good bands that people need to hear. Bands that they've never heard. All they need is a push in the right direction. I do think it's interesting that MTV again wants to be in charge of cutting-edge music after all these years of reality TV." However, far more significant things happened last year than the mainstream renaissance of rock music. Arlie found himself in New York on September 11th, and witnessed the horror of the terrorist atrocities at first-hand. Over the next two months he composed and posted a lengthy piece on the band's website entitled 'What The Hell Is The Point?', addressing the question of what exactly it means to make music and be in a band, and indeed whether it is appropriate to carry on in the wake of the tragedy. Arlie's reflections resonate with a remarkable positivity and humanism. "Making music", he writes, "is about more than just being perpetually broke, playing shows, getting paid, driving long hours, making singles, compact discs, and posters. It's more than amps turned to eleven. It's an opportunity to see more of the world than you might ever come to know otherwise. It's an opportunity to shun complacency and normalcy in favour of conversation and contemplation about the nature and purpose of life - while engaging people on their own terms and in their own environments." Drawing together his thoughts, he concludes: "I've come to find that making music is a constant source of comfort, confrontation and education about the resilience and frailty of life. Music is about people and all of the lovely and terrible things we do to and for one another. People matter … If I believe that the whole point of sharing art and music is to share life with others, then at a time like this it is especially important to reach out to people." Arlie is not alone in his beliefs. In an interview with 'Punk Planet' magazine, John Szuch, founder of the fiercely independent punk label Deep Elm, claimed: "Music inspires, and when I think about our purpose as people, I think inspiration is the most important thing we can give to one another." And so, if this article reads like a eulogy, then so be it. Because Juno and The Dismemberment Plan matter. Because they want to reach out to people, they want to share something. Because when it comes to inspiration, they are two of the most generous bands around. - Ben Woolhead Source: courtesy Ben Woolhead of Impact magazine. Please look for their future magazine issues. |
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