Storm & Stress
Under Thunder and Fluorescent Light
Touch and Go
The muscles in my back hurt, but I want to write about Storm & Stress. Music should be demanding. The listener should have to listen as long as it takes until they understand what is going on in the music. This is, of course, only one approach to music. It’s an approach to music that’s not all that popular amongst a society of people who believe that all music should bring people together so they can dance. Dancing is good. I really like to dance, but I tend to get thrown off beat by music, so I tend to dance without any music. The whole entire idea of listening to music and trying to follow what the artist is doing is losing. Kids steal their parents’ Mozart records and trade them in for MC Hammer CDs. Let’s for a moment call this music that you think about, something like “frown rock”. Or let’s not and say we did. This music that makes people listen is the same music that sells out shows of lonely music nerds who just stare.
Storm & Stress is hurt by other stupid bands that try to be the next Storm & Stress. They get lumped together with a bunch of crappy bands that want to be taken seriously because they play endless drones or just get together and improvise a bunch of nonsense. Storm & Stress write songs. I didn’t believe they were songs until I heard that they reproduce their songs when they play live. Their first album was tense and took some time to accept. This album is their little rest hour. They play their instruments in their sleep. They do things you think you could have thought of if only you had thought of it first. But you didn’t.
Touch and Go, P.O. Box 25520, Chicago, IL 60625
