Evergreen
Evergreen [Reissue]
Temporary Residence
This reissue of Evergreen’s 1995 debut can be used to answer two questions: 1) How does music cease to be a “throwback,” and start becoming “cutting edge?” 2) Who buys an album solely on the appearance of a drummer?
The first question is the more interesting of the two, because when this album was released, its bass-heavy dance-punk tracks severely clashed with the turgid post-grunge nonsense being thrown around in most corners. The disc fell through the cracks, going largely unheard until now. The band’s sound harkens back to the post-punk of the early/mid ‘80’s, while still maintaining the “keyboards ain’t rock” ‘90’s mindset. Think of Make Up without the gospel posturing, backing a paranoid drunk instead of a sex-starved preacher. Re-envisioned today in the rock-is-the-new-dance, dance-is-the-new-rock paradigm, Evergreen comes off like prodigal elder statesmen. In truth, the band should get down on their knees and thank the revisionists of rock history for making this album “relevant,” because it still sounds dated and bland to me when taken alongside the rest of the dance-punk flood. The band does get points, though, for the Morricone played by Metallica impression of “Coyote.”
The second supposed selling point is Britt Walford (ex-Slint, Breeders). He’s more than a capable drummer, but his performance here isn’t likely to be of interest to anyone but ardent completists. In the end, this isn’t a horrible album, but of the myriad of out-of-print discs out there deserving a second chance to be heard, this one ranks very low on my list.
Temporary Residence: http://www.temporaryresidence.com/
