Thursday, August 14, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Music: Well, it's kinda like...

Christiansen, like, um, describes its sound

By Newt Briggs

John Coltrane's Love Supreme, Guns `n Roses' Appetite for Destruction, Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet--proof that a good title can make an album. Of course, as evidenced by Salt-n-Pepa's A Salt With a Deadly Pepa, Genesis' Nursery Cryme and the Greg Allman/Cher debacle Allman and Woman: Two the Hard Way, a bad title can be equally ruinous, relegating even passable efforts to the dustbin of history. Titles are particularly important to a band like Christiansen, whose name reveals so little about its sonic inclinations. Thus, it seems reasonable to suspect that the title of their last album--the 2002 EP Forensics Brothers & Sisters!--would be chock full of symbolism and hidden meanings, the product of many hours of reflection and deliberation.

Says Christiansen drummer Terry Campbell: "To me, Forensics Brothers & Sisters! has always meant...That is, it's kind of like, um...I haven't had to explain this in a really long time, so I'm sort of drawing a blank. I think the 'Brothers & Sisters!' part refers to, like, you and your friends. And the 'Forensics' part means, ahhhh...Oh my God, I have no idea. I guess it just sounded cool."

Although it may be equally difficult to translate into words, the music sounded cool too. Indie rock goes avant-garde, Forensics Brothers & Sisters! framed hardcore's characteristic caterwauling within the unconventional time signatures and progressive rhythms of jazz--something like Fugazi covering Ornette Coleman or The Blood Brothers doing Miles Davis. "It's an extremely experimental album," says Campbell. "When we recorded it, we were just trying to get out all of the ideas we had. In the end, we came out with some crazy--sometimes spastic--grooves."

Like most experimental albums, not everyone took to it right away. In fact, it left some kids standing around and scratching their heads. "A while back, we did a tour with Midtown," Campbell recalls, "and their sound is a lot more traditional than ours. It didn't turn out as bad as we thought it would be, but you could tell that sometimes our music went flying over the kids' heads."

According to Campbell, though, Christiansen's newest full-length album is distinctly more conventional than the last. Scheduled to be released on Oct. 14, Stylish Nihilists fuses the band's penchant for experimentation with a more established album format. "The new record has choruses and song structures--even repetition," says Campbell. "We tried to make it so that it would make more sense to people other than ourselves."

It's also comforting to note that in spite of their progressive (and occasionally puzzling) sound, Christiansen is still treated to the gloriously debauched revelry of the touring rock band. For example, on a recent tour stop in Jacksonville, Fla., a wild show spilled over into an outrageous party, again leaving Campbell short on words. "There was a huge parking lot in the back of the venue where we had the R.V. parked," he says, "and afterwards, everyone ended up back there. We've got a beer bong, and people were funneling beers and throwing up everywhere. There were girls drinking six or seven beers at a time. I don't even know how to describe it. Just imagine the craziest night possible. That's what happened."

Still, if there's anywhere Campbell doesn't dither, it's in describing Christiansen's virtues--assets that might not fit easily into the framework of an album title but that are clearly reflected in all of the band's musical endeavors.

"The same style of music has been the norm for so long that it's gotten, well, pretty dull," he says. "I like to think that we offer the music-buying populace something they haven't heard before, something that's new and different. It might not be for everyone, but we're not looking to be pop stars--that's for damn sure."