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[DudeAsInCool]

Evergreen

Evergreen

[Hi-Ball; 1996; r: Temporary Residence; 2003]

Two things:

1. The DFA's James Murphy produced this album. My bet is that Murphy's presence is the primary reason, if not the only reason, that Temporary Residence has re-released Evergreen's 1996 self-titled opus. Murphy is relevant, the DFA is untouchable, and here we are, for better or worse, in the Pasiphaean throes of disco-punk, whose only worthwhile examples have been the ones in which Murphy himself has been directly involved. That said, Evergreen are not disco-punk. Their album is not some proto-DFA, proto-"HOJL", Ur-dancerock underground classic (although I'm willing to entertain the possibility that those who say otherwise are simply very imaginative dancers), and if hi-hat cymbals open at all during a song, check your speakers before you wind your neck.

2a. Britt Walford, who percussed most notably in Kentucky bands Squirrel Bait, Slint, and The Breeders, is Evergreen's drummer and keyboardist. The operative word here is Slint, precisely because of how telling-- and dare I say, how inexhaustibly fun-- the game of rock-and-roll connect-the-dots becomes when Slint and post-Slint splinter bands are its playthings. Yet even I, who at the slight downward turn of a mid-90s volume knob, haphazardly cry out "Slint! Slint!" as if the band invented dynamics, can hardly forge half-baked synapses betweenSpiderland and Walford's effort (though moments on "Solar System", "New York City" and, I guess, "Klark Kent" might have a chance with more time). Perhaps there's a reason Evergreen aren't mentioned as often in the same breath as, say, The For Carnation or Pajo M, who betray their Slint roots more ostensibly.

2b. Listen, if anything, Evergreen are just solid sorta-garage rockers-- less energetic though more colorful than The Stooges; reminiscent of Fugazi's overall timbre but not nearly as trigonometric; nearly as dark as the Pixies' most opaque moments, but never approaching their expectations of melody. Evergreen recorded 13 songs in toto (11 from their original LP on Hi-Ball and two bonus non-Murphy recordings), a few of which are pretty good. It just might be a bit overblown to put Evergreen in the credmonger's favorite room, the nymphaeum of criminally overlooked albums. It's not the curiously adolescent marriage some of us expected between the DFA's dancefloor sensibilities and an emotionally charged, possibly Slinty sound, but Evergreen, taken for the sloppy 90s rock romp it actually is, certainly proves itself worthy of re-release.

2c. Fight me about it, take me to town, etc., but garage-rock is garage-rock. "Pants Off" is equal parts 'Stripes, Hendrix, and Stooges blues "ballad," with very little to differentiate itself from those acts. Hendrix aside, if anything Evergreen seems to possess musicians who are more technically proficient, and since Murphy's production refuses to push all channels to the front of the mix, the album's depth of sound mirrors the depth of Evergreen's compositions in earnest. This works to the band's advantage on songs like opener "Fairline", whose fresh drum-led intro with gritty guitar catcalls vividly recalls the opening moments of Miles Davis' "Right Off" on A Tribute to Jack Johnson, and also in parts like the second half of "Klark Kent", a glassy-eyed outro where single-line guitar parts converge from deep within the mix into a swooning maelstrom. The downside is that it presents straightforward and unilateral rockers like "Whip Cream Bottle" as a little more airy than they were likely intended, and as a result, the band sacrifices immediacy for more texture than is probably needed.

2d. "New York City" is nothing new but still fantastic, a simple instrumental built around an off-kilter, two-chord guitar riff and a steady low bass punch. I admit I like this song because we can see Murphy's role and Slint's possible influence on Evergreen most clearly. As the track progresses, low-level squeaks and squirms are left unfiltered to pass into the mix, and Walford's drumming ebbs back and forth with metallic complexity, the other parts barely changing up their acts at all. By the next track, "Coyote", Evergreen return to their sophisto-garage tendencies, which, while not the sound I most appreciate on the album, is pretty much fine, too.

-Nick Sylvester, February 11th, 2004

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-revie...evergreen.shtml