Remember that period after Emo imploded, before Indie became all of Rock n Roll, when garage bands were all that were worth listening to on the radio? The And/Ors were the unfortunate spawn of that period in indie rock history. Formed from the wreckage of 90s era indie and Emo bands, the band knit its limbs together into a powerful creature, which got lost in a sandstorm and died yards from an oasis.
To put the story in less melodramatic terms, the And/Ors was kind of an indie super group, being composed of former members of Thee Psychic Hearts, Jejune, Interstate Ten, and Crash Worship, none of whom I had heard of but who I will look up. The album these guys put together is awesome. My knowledge of pre-2004 indie is pretty sketchy, but form what I do know these guys really sound like a transition point between the best of 90s era indie and what became 2004 era indie. I know that may be hard to envisage, given the blanket term tendency indie has. The album has noise jams and sound walls that would make Sonic Youth and Pavement proud. There are regular, well harmonized male/ female vocal pairings that are reminiscent of Sonic Youth and The Pixies. They have the kind of jangly guitars that I have heard in other less well known indie acts (and possibly pavement?). There are even elements that are kind of reminiscent of Dookie-era Green Day. The production values are appropriately lo-fi, and the songs are hook laden, melodic, rocking, and fun. They even have a hot chick bassist
So obviously this is an awesome album. I really liked it on my first listen. Unfortunately, because the band’s page was deleted I have had to do my research for this write up on the blogs of other critics, which is a terrible way to form ones own opinion, especially when the whole point of this exercise is that I have serious gaps in my musical knowledge. And now I have the doubts.
Do I really like them? Are they really derivative of other bands whose albums I haven’t listened to yet? Would I like them less if I had listened to the Screaming Dinosaurs or Female Jr.? What am I doing with my life? I am spending more than an hour per day writing up these reviews that no one reads, and if they did, all I would do is color their opinion, on bands whose music they will probably never find, with poorly founded opinions I am partially regurgitating from Wikipedia! While this does help me organize my thoughts on these bands, what good is that when the bands I am reviewing are so obscure they will never help me actually finish the connections in my historic image of recent rock history? Am I only even writing this blog because job hunting has turned up no real results, and I have a vague hope that I am screwed up and interesting enough to make money from writing bullshit opinions about music no one will ever hear?
Maybe this isn’t the most original album in existence, but, dammnit, it is a lot of fun and is kind of a missing link for the indie universe, but there is one thing about the And/Ors that pisses me off. All computer programs apparently chop the “And” off, and so they are listed as the “Ors” in my music library. That really bugs me. But otherwise I would recommend this album, and I am keeping my copy. Just do not try to write a review of it while in a spiral of self doubt and depression.
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