Apr
24
“A few days ago I was having lunch with a friend. He said something which I thought was interesting, the gist of it being that San Diego music wouldn’t have been what it was if it weren’t for the influences of Washington DC’s Nation of Ulysses and Olympia’s Unwound. I agreed, but added that without those two bands, the SD sound would have still been unique, it just would have been culled from a smaller pool of local influence, specifically from the likes of Drive Like Jehu and Rocket From the Crypt. Never the less, there was a time in the early and mid 1990’s wherein a bunch of young San Diego bands—from Heroin to Antioch Arrow to Clikatat Ikatowi—sounded like their DC and Oly counterparts, only sped (in the screamo variety) or slowed down (in the Black Heart Procession variety). But either way, theirs was the sound of the melted and the sun-weary.”
NPR: We Came, We Saw, We Conquered
Interesting post from Carrie Brownstein on how a town could develop its own sound (think San Diego, Olympia, DC, etc.) - something that was almost expected in the 90s but which feels less true today. Is a band’s hometown really much of a signifier any more?
I’d love to get more into it, but unfortunately am way too busy at the moment. I don’t agree with everything Brownstein says—I think she’s giving Unwound and NoU a little too much credit as far as influencing the San Diego scene goes—but there’s still some food for thought there. Also, tons of Unwound clips.
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