Now, not to date myself, if it isn't already painfully obvious that I am old and uncool, but I went to high school in the first half of the nineties. This was good for me in many respects, as I had moved from a small town in the rural south and shed my school brain image by growing very long hair and developing a habit of inappropriately wearing bathrobes long before "Pulp Fiction" of "The Big Lebowski" were a gleam in either creator's respective eyes. That was fine. This brief window of respectability enabled me to do a number of important things. One of them was to date beautiful girls in Doc Martens who listened to Bauhaus. That's not what I came here to talk about, though. The single most important thing from back then: the concerts.
Yes, the glorious shows. I think the very first show I saw when I first moved out here was GWAR, in some warehouse. I don't think they even had an opening band. There were so many shows after that with something about the sound of them that concerts now (or before, even) don't have. The Melvins, White Zombie, Slayer, Voivod, Blackhappy, Babes In Toyland, Anthrax, Prong, The Obsessed, Clutch, Corrosion of Conformity, The Misfits... not to mention all the great local bands (such as Wartime Chocolate, source of the title quote). Mind you, I've mentioned pretty much all metal bands, but that's germane.
I'm not sure what it is exactly about that sound. Was it hearing those bands at the Pine St. or the Roseland, or was it me being 14? Are we talking zeitgeist? On to brass tacks. Lozen's bio page mentions that the members, Hozoji and Justine, met when in '96, and while they started playing music much later, I have a feeling their musical synergy arose from the earlier millennium. What are their influences? I don't know. I'd like to. Yes, I know they list them on their myspace. No, it doesn't count.
When I first heard of Lozen, they had played Bob's Java Jive the night before Coeur Machant did, and my interest was definitely piqued. As far as what they sound like, on their music sampled here: well, in a refreshing counterexample to my usual method, I can't compare them to a single group. Instead they evoke that '90s sound that I have been trying to present above. Most people think grunge when you say "nineties sound," and that is why I went to such and elaborate and roundabout way of getting to it. Lozen is heavy. They thunder. Gracefully. They stomp all over shit, beautifully, and now that I have heard their music I am grateful their peeps notified us of the show, because I will be there to see them rip it up live.
Pretending that I am 14 again.
Lozen plays the East End August 5th.
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