Yank Crime

One of the best albums of this whole list and if you give it a low score you are not invited to my birthday party

Oh man, for something classified as "emo" this album sure has teeth. It's vicious in all the best ways. If emo still sounded like this, I'd absolutely be an emo kid. Froburg's vocals howl at you from the speakers with all the passion and fire that you get with all the great punk vocalists. The guitars are wielded like dueling power saws artfully slicing apart the melody and recombining it into something beautiful and vulnerably raw. Basically, this album is everything that I love about punk and hardcore but with the added layer of emotional openness and honesty. Loved it. Couldn't love it more. Wish I could give it 6 stars.

I actually quite like it. Unexpected 4. Actually reminds me alot if the coarser songs of The Strokes. "Luau" is pretty retarded though, 7:45 sounds like fucking FlightReacts https://youtu.be/x4LWEvEKT_g "Super Unison" is great, but why did the first minute have to sampled from one tone of a fucking air raid siren. Sometimes it's just bad noise, but most times it's actually fucking incredible. I'm actually torn on giving it a 5 or a 4 now. Because obviously it's not perfect, it has some very weird sound-choices, but goddamn the energy is so good. Fuck you it's a 5.

Post-hardcore punk that I haven't really listened to before. Definitely in the vein of Fugazi. It's ahead of it's time in sound, the next logical step after Fugazi. This is the stepping stone to some more popular bands in the late 90s/early 2000s like At the Drive-In. The distorted sounds and longer songs won't be everyone, but this is a great marriage of punk and noise rock.

Too much screaming.

Everything is a matter of perspective. I've listened to this album three times and took my time to rate it because I really liked it (average score 2,71). Next day I listened to Chelsea Girl by Nico (average score 2,61) and hate that garbage. Similar score, different energy and style. Anyway, never heard of Drive Like Jehu before but for me this is the biggest surprise I had pleasure to discover via this site after listen to almost two hundread albums.

Brilliant album, from a band I had never even heard of. Loved every song, but "do you compute" and "sinews" were the best ones. They remind me of late Nirvana and/or early Biffy Clyro - two of my favourites of all time!

raw 90s punk good stuff

Slint if they weren't incels? Math-rocky, abrasive, punk, a good listen so far.

Drive Like Jehu were a band I missed the first time around, although they were theoretically right in my wheelhouse (noisy, heavy, angsty alt-rock). I think it was because this was their first Australian release, and it came out shortly after the record store I worked at, Scratches Records, had closed, and so my need, ability and desire to keep up on new releases had evaporated. And I have subsequently heard the name, but never heard any of their songs until now. Reading about this filled me with foreboding. Terms like "proto-emo" and "math rock" inspired some dread. I don't really like either of those things. Too much empty posturing and calculation for my taste, which (despite loud guitars) can get in the way of the Rock. I like the Rock. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I started playing this. It felt noisy and spontaneous, and while it has some of the characteristics of math-rock (changes in time signatures and tempo, some intricate guitar arrangements), this was a loud and energetic burst of adrenaline and squalling noise, that felt like they were playing by the seat of their pants. I like that, Noisily and viscerally recorded, when the record stated playing, I was was sure that it must have been a Steve Albini recording. I am still shocked that it isn't. It has his trademark sound of an unadorned and unfussy production that doesn't get in the way of the band sounding like a band. It reminds me of some slightly earlier records like God Machine's "Songs from the Second Storey" or the Murder Inc. S/T album, which got a lot of play in my house in 1992. In fact, I can imagine that if this record had come out in 1992, I would have been a fan. But I'm not 22 any more. I am an old man with tired ears, and I find this album exhausting. I quite like the track Luau (which has a bit more light and shade than most of the record), By the end of the record, it all is sounding like a big noisy shouting match, and I am done. I'm giving this 2.5, rounding up to 3 because I imagine that my younger self might have quite liked this.

A very disappointing album. From the long drawn out songs, to the noise walls throughout, to the overall length and lack of shining moments, this album felt like a full dud that misses a lot of the appeal of its various included genres and aesthetics.

Awesome post-hardcore type sound, but in the early 90s! Must have been big influences on bands like At the Drive In and Thursday. Love the intricate guitar work and unique vocals.

i am a masochist for this album and it never stops beating me up fav track: super unison

It wanted to be annoying and it has achieved it

Sometimes an album just clicks, it defies time and preferences. Though I was not an immediate fan of Yank Crime, it did grow on me over the course of a few weeks in the summer of 1994. I fell in love with the way the songs built from a strange whirring feedback like in Super Unison to punching you in the face when you're least expecting it like a full blast of cold air. But then there's melodic single-notes over a foreboding bass line that builds and fizzles like in the instrumental New Intro. The range of emotion contained in this album is undeniable. There are a ton of surprises buried within these tracks. Luau is absolutely incredible as is Super Union. These long songs (7+ mins.) encapsulate a wealth of ups-and-downs and create tension, release, and melancholic beauty by using powerfully scripted chaos along the way. A lot has changed since '94. Back then the music scene was completely different, CD's reigned, music diversity was hard to come by and the digital revolution had barely begun. Cell phones weren't a thing and even pagers were a novelty. Today, nearly 30 years later, I still find myself searching out this album to listen to. I was fortunate enough to see DLJ reunited for a few shows in 2016. Part of me wishes they'd get back together and release new music, but the other part of me knows this album was perfect for the time it was released, and that time will never be replicated.

And once again I got an education on some music (post hardcore) I thought I knew but really didn't. Doing some reading, I saw how some people label the sound as screamo...I got a kick out of that. Like thrash or metalcore, I love the manic musical energy but don't love the scream singing. I also love the intricacy to their playing (much more than thrash) but don't love when it gets all smashed together in a ball of noise. On this album, the vocals and scratch/grating effects on guitar get to be a little too much after awhile. Or right from the start - I didn't love the opening track, too much chaos. Still, these guys are very good at what they do and I can see why other bands in the genre cite their influence. I think their creativity and skill are really on display on Do you Compute, Luau, and Hand over Fist. At times I really loved this album, other times meh. Maybe my rating would go higher if I listened to it 10+ times. For now, certainly respect but not adoration.

It's music i guess

I looked up why this is considered an important album, and that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean I have to care

Too much screaming, I don't like it

FUCKING HORRIBLE

i’m halfway through this album. it feels like one terrible long song. its repetitive and every song overstays it’s welcome. i strongly dislike it. i can’t wait for it to be over.

Rules

It's like being in a drunken bar brawl. Noisy, abrasive. The members play as if they're all attempting to compete for your attention, somehow working against and with each other throughout the record. It's a record I know will have mixed reviews on here, but man, do I love it. From this record, we get the whole late 90s/early 00s emo boom. Favorite tracks: "Do You Compute?", "Here Come the Rome Plows", "Luau"

Unexpectedly good

4/10. Yeah, I just love being yelled at

That's a nope from me

This was very good and happy I have heard this now Will I listen to again: 100%

Can I really be giving an album I've never heard of before a 5? I think I am. Maybe it's just because I've been in a rut of fairly "meh" albums for the past couple of weeks, but this one sort of blew my socks off. Driving, crunchy, loud guitars that change mid song, vocals just short of a hardcore scream but still very interesting. I really liked it. Maybe my favorite "new to me" album since starting this project.

This album just cranks it for an hour straight. Never heard of this in my life but this was worth finding. Fat slapping rock brah. It's epic. It sounds insanely good for 1994, about 10 years ahead of it's time. It doesn't have the muddy production a lot of 90's rock and grunge have, which is refreshing every now and then. Score: 90 Art: 70

Top 10. And top 5 major label of the 90s

First album that is new to me to get 5 stars

Very very interesting. A hell of a noise. I'll need more time with this, but I love the clanging guitars.

4 Holy shit, 525 albums in, and we finally got an emo album! This list has seriously been lacking, so I can only imagine we’re about to see some Rites of Spring, Jawbreaker, and Sunny Day Real Estate coming down the pipeline soon. As for Drive Like Jehu, admittedly, I didn’t really know a ton about them going into this, but they couldn’t have popped up at a better time after having just seen Jimmy Eat World this past weekend (amazing show btw). As I learned from their chapter in the emo chronicle, Sellout (amazing book btw), Jimmy Eat World were huge fans of this band, and ultimately recruited drummer Mark Trombino to produce the majority of their albums, including what I would personally consider their magnum opus, Clarity. Now, this album is quite different from Clarity. In particular, it’s much louder, angrier, and, at times, discordant - and I love it. In some ways, it reminded me of Fugazi. I realize that saying so probably makes me a bit of hypocrite after having just used the phrase “assaulting on the senses” pejoratively in my previous review, but this hits me in a totally different way. Unlike Orbital, these guys seem to be actually saying something, and even if you can’t discern exactly what that is from the lyrics, you can feel it in the performance - in many ways, its imperfection is its charm. This is exactly the kind of shit I love hearing live at my local LA dive bar. I was a little apprehensive when I saw some of the runtimes, but the longer songs on this album ended up being my favorites, with Do You Compute, Luau, and Sinews being three highlights for me. I liked everything I heard though, with my only real complaints here being that a lot of the songs sound pretty similar and that there seems to lack any one with a real hook to it, but if I’m being honest, despite that, this is the kind of shit I could listen to all day. It’s not quite what I would consider a masterpiece, but it’s something I would happily add to the musical rotation. Also, it turns out Mark Trambino owns a donut shop in LA, featuring such treats as the “Jimmy Eat Swirl” and “Bacon-182”. Will definitely have to go check it out this weekend. https://www.donutfriend.com/about-us

i appreciate this more than i like it, and i find the album taken in as a whole better than its individual parts (though 'here come the rome plows' is a brilliantly propulsive track) i think the math-rock elements prevent me from fully "getting it" and provide sort of an emotional distancing effect relative to the post-hardcore i really vibe with, but i had a good time

Yank Crime is pretty damn good when it gets it right, a bit different in the punk genre because there's some long tracks and some heavy guitar work, Do You Compute, Luau and Super Unison are great in the first half of the record, Human Interest towards the end, probably edges a low 4 for me because I liked most of it.

at first, my kneejerk reaction was that i dislike this. but once i let myself be openminded about this, i actually found i enjoyed this album. it's super aggressive without being over the top, it has some fun time signature moments, some dissonance, and is a lot more adjacent to music i like from the era than i wanted to admit up front. it's not an all timer for me at this point in time, but i can see myself warming up to this one a bit more as time goes on.

This is the kind of album that makes me want to go out and buy a drum set. Incredibly raw in production this one has a punk rock ethos with a slightly "emo" lean. The songwriting is sprawling but incredibly catchy at times (prime example: Luau) with very technical sounding instrumentation. There is a lot of tempo shifting and experimentation that borrows from the realms of math-rock (e.g., Battles) Unrelenting out of the gate, Here Come the Rome Plows plays like a sudden breach in a dam -- all one direction in a semi-chaotic, mostly ordered procession. Screamo adjacent vocals will definitely not be everyone's cup of tea, but IMO it works here by adding to the raw aesthetic. Where Here Come the Rome Plows is fast and forward, Do You Compute is stretched and minimal. The song opens to an elongated post-rock style intro with a screechy guitar loop forming the foundation and other elements coming in behind to support. For some reason it reminds me a bit of Death Cab for Cutie's I Will Possess Your Heart. Golden Brown is the most "direct" of the songs so far and also one of the most fun to drum along with. The little breakdown around the 2 minute mark reminds me a lot of The Mars Volta -- something about the drum interaction with the quick guitar riff. Luau is a contender for my favorite songs on here. Discordant guitars layer over some visceral drumming and a loping bass progression with one of the most singable choruses here. Just a great one for burning up some open road with the windows down and pounding the steering wheel. Sinews is a late album standout that sprawls. The opening riff feels extremely familiar, but I cannot place it -- somewhere from the post-rock cannon (perhaps Explosions in the Sky?). This one grows naturally before turning inward and sludging along borrowing an ominous riff that would fit naturally on Black Sabbath's Master of Reality. I really enjoyed this album in all of its messiness and raw emotion. The songs are sprawling but dense in their technical aggression and I found myself hooked in. This is a very high 4 verging on 5 for me.

Post-hardcore is a strange genre. While commonly associated with emo-leaning sounds nowadays, an album like this exhibits the genre at its most primal - and sounds, at times, like a long-lost Fugazi album. Yet I can see how a band like this influenced 'At The Drive-In', a band that was crucial in the more emotional-hardcore direction the genre went into in the 2000s. It's a nice bridge between those two distinctive, yet interrelated sounds. Well given my affinity for Fugazi (them being one of my favorite, if not my favorite band of all time), I felt right at home listening to this. The twisted, noisy guitar passages, the mind-pummelling riffs - paired with the occasional shimmering arpeggio to brighten things up from time to time, it's all here - in spades. I mean it when I say, for 50 or so minutes, you're getting the absolute peak of what this sound had to offer in the '90s - though admittedly no one song stood out to me upon first listen. Instead, I just found myself lost in the long, puzzling, winding song structures of songs like 'Luau' that never seem to revisit the same motif more than once. That song, 'Luau', also has some of the wildest sets of aggressively pitched, feedback-looped, and plucked guitar tones I've heard out of this genre in those final couple minutes - it's sick. The weird noises this group manages to squeeze out of these guitars all across this thing kept me wondering what bizarre noise I was going to be hit with next - I loved the fast picking and strange, yet genuinely gorgeous bridge of the song 'Super Unison' for example. There's also that fluttering and blisteringly animalistic chirping tone near the halfway mark of the closing 'Sinews'. By the time I was done with this thing, I felt like I had just woken up from a fever dream - nothing on here seemed to make any sense, yet it all came together seamlessly. Y'know this is one of those albums that I know for an absolute FACT will continue growing on me with subsequent listens - there's just so much to chew on here, especially lyrically (which I didn't get much into on my first listen - I was too enamored by the NOISE). And I think, in general, 'Drive Like Jehu' is pretty underrated when it comes to discussing influential alternative rock groups from the '90s. Pure ecstasy in noise.

I get it, music like this, similar to abstract art, is not for everyone. …and it’s funny, reading the reviews here, it seems like the reaction is similar to reactions I’ve seen from people who have a great distaste for abstract art: that they have been forced to endure something that isn’t explicitly defined or wrapped up in a nice package. If you’re like me and your brain works in a way that’s compatible with music like this, if it gets your synapses firing, you’ll probably find Yank Crime an interesting and enjoyable listen. Yeah, it’s aggressive and noisy and atypical when compared with what would be considered the norm, but who said music can’t be those things?

i'm digging a lot of this album. same scene as the slightly later (i think) at the drive in (and much later, mars volta) echoes of the entire future screemo genre can be heard here. put some operatic polish on it and tighten the production quality and you have something resembling system of a down buuuuut you're gonna want to skip at least the first 30-40 seconds track five super unison. i'm feeling generous so i'll call it an homage to the endless and ear splitting space odyssey 2001 scene

Another important piece in the post-hardcore puzzle. Drive Like Jehu leans heavy into making more noise than their contemporaries and doing it in a way that feels like calculated chaos. Guitars drive and clash against each other like cars of a demolition derby, occasionally playing in sync playing in a satisfyingly fast way to deliver the hook. It's a vicious and biting record that accomplishes it's sound in spades.

Pretty good, like a more melodic At The Drive-In

Never heard of these guys before, very At the Drive-In

I enjoyed this, but it definitely goes on too long. It's not just the album length, but I feel like every song should've been half as long, if not even shorter.

Rock genres can be hard to pin down. DLJ is described as post-hardcore, math rock, post-punk, and emo. While they don't sound like what I think of as emo, apparently they were on the leading edge of the genre's evolution before it reached its heights in the early 00s. And I had to get further into the album before it crystallized for me where they belonged. Because I hated the first track and it was really hard to get through. I thought I was going to have to tell pretentious-ass how much I disliked one of his favorites. Things got better though, as the screaming and noise began to take shape rather than just existing for its own sake. pretentious-ass also recommended giving it multiple listens - that did not help the first track (still awful), but it did help the rest. I'm glad I powered through the first song because I do like the rest of the album. Exploring deeper into the references on the Wikipedia page, I found an article that helped understand DLJ's place in the bigger rock picture, placing them firmly among post-hardcore contemporaries like Glassjaw and At the Drive-In. I really liked ATDI, but never explored the genre much further. The article also included Fugazi as an early highlight of the genre, as well as Brand New, who I am familiar with and a band that does make sense as fitting on the border between emo and post-hardcore. I listened to a bit of Glassjaw, and revisited ATDI. I still really love ATDI, even though their songs are either completely nonsensical or at a higher level of poetry than I can understand. But the sound is so great. DLJ just can't match that, but I'm still happy they pushed me to revisit more of the genre. I think "Yank Crime" probably deserves a 3, but there were enough moments I really dug in between less-stellar stuff to allow for a slightly generous 4. Maybe I'm just in the mood for screaming?

Proto screamo. Love it. Though with this energy, you would hope for songs shorter than 9mins!

Really surprised I’ve not heard this before, the kind of long, math-esque post hardcore that I like. A bit long, but I’ll definitely listen again

YOOOO, great stuff, love the skronky post hardcore, the changes in speed and tempo, the loud noisy production

I like punk, I like hardcore, this album had hints of both but didn't accomplish the goal of either. One of the features of hardcore is that the songs are short and powerful, many of these songs these were just too long. Maybe that's what "post hardcore" is but then maybe it's not for me.

Damn. Aggressive as heck. It's like scentless apprentice, from start to finish. I think if i was in the mood i'd like this more and more. Still solid.

Sure, it's dynamic and and has twists and turns, but the veering is from loud to louder and ragged to raggeder. Little more than noise and thrash. Does a "fringe-rock artifact" belong on such an esteemed list? One thinks definitively not.

I just do not enjoy being screamed at for an hour. The instrumental song was nice, though

Nirvana would never do me like this.

фу

I don't know what to say other than this sucked hugely. Just noise and screaming from the get-go. The second song has the worst repetitive guitar intro maybe of all time. There is NO reason this made ANYONE's Top 1001 other than shock value. This is crap and sounds like an album they gave away at their show where they played in front of 35 people on a Tuesday night. Every song sounds essentially the same, 100 mph and screaming nonsensical lyrics over and over. There is no way to sit through all 12 songs and remain sane - if you can make it through "Bullet Train To Vegas" in its entirety, you are bulletproof! This album is not worthy, No Stars is my rating.

Aggressive music with equally aggressive vocals. The style may resonate with some, but for me this was a challenge to listen to in full.

I can handle a lot of genres but I could not handle this album. Sorry

Je suis pas énervé, je suis juste déçu

Sounds like they were having fun. I wasn't.

Why am I listening to something that was about 20 years too late? It's like Punk had taken that long to reach these guys. One moment they were strumming out Beach Boys tunes and then someone burst in holding a copy of 'God Save the Queen' circa 1993 and said "have you heard these guys?" 1001Albums seems to have a warped idea on what is ground-breaking. There are like 150 pages devoted to the 60's and 200 pages to the 90's. Which was the most ground-breaking and influential decade? Mmmmm.....

One of the songs hurt my ears.

This seriously gets into an ‘all time greatest albums’ list?

Hardcore/Post-hardcore is not for me, could barely make it through the first track, gave Super Unison a shot, made it about two minutes through. Just not for my sensibilities. I can certainly see how this had an effect on the genre however, I get Thursday without the melody vibes from this album.

Here Come the Rome Plows is one of the greatest things ever recorded

Amazing album.

fuck yeah, instant 5. love it.

"Yank Crime" is the second and final album by San Diego post hardcore band Drive Like Jehu. The Wiki-listed genres are post hardcore, math rock, noise rock, post-punk and emo. You have my utmost attention now. Some members of the band would go on to form Rocket From the Crypt and those members in this band include Rick Froberg (vocals, rhythm guitar), John Reis (guitar), Mike Kennedy (bass) and Mark Trombino (drums). A lo-fi bass and a Mudhoney-like rock sound open "Here Comes the Rome Plow." Screaming vocals. Strung out and scratching layered guitars. There's an urgency to this sound that's great. "Do You Compute" has weird guitar keys and melody. Wow, here's your math rock. I've been lifted back to the Standard in Knoxville listening to Still House Plants. Why not just math rock it out for 9 minutes and that's what they do in "Luau." "New Math" starts out like the band is angry at the world. Hard, driving, guitars. Thrash bass and drums. The singer is angry at something but we already knew that from the preceding music. How the hell did I not know about the whole San Diego punk scene in the 1990's? I was living in Santa Barabara at the time. This album is fucking great; I ordered the vinyl a minute into the first song. Hard, melodic, adventurous, urgent, angry, great guitars, bass and drums. I'm not sure where the emo comes in but if this is emo, I'm a fan. A perfect way to end a music-focused vacation. An utterly fantastic album.

I a really really liked this. Loved the energy. Loved the music.

Ik vind niet alleen hiphop leuk, dit soort muziek luister ik ook regelmatig en heb ik ook veel geluisterd. Deze specifieke band heb ik echter nooit aangezet in m'n jeugd. Hardcore en Post-Hardcore was voor mij vaak net over een grens: te chaotisch, te schreeuwerig. Van bijvoorbeeld At The Drive-In vind ik sommige nummers bijna onovertreffelijk (Honest to a Fault), maar andere nummers van hun kon ik niet zoveel (bijv. Arcarsenal). Tegenwoordig kan ik het wat beter hebben, zolang het niet te wiskundig wordt. The Mars Volta vind ik denk ik nog steeds vermoeiend. Dit 'Rijden Als Een Joehoe' album zit nu aan de goede kant van de grens voor mij. Lichte chaos, ingewikkelde gitaarshit afgewisseld met beukende herhalingen en dat alles begeleid door een prettige vocalist en goede drummer. En natuurlijk af en toe even wat zielige rustmomentjes. Genoeg herrie om je stoer te voelen en één been voorzichtig zwevend boven het spectrum is genoeg om het nog enigszins te kunnen volgen. Ook deze zal hier vanaf nu niet elke dag aan gaan, maar toch ben ik een beetje aan het twijfelen tussen een 4 en een 5. Eigenlijk is een 5 net iets te hoog, maar ik heb wel zin om hem te geven. Hardcore (en mag ik emo zeggen?) voor de fijnproever.

Very At the Drive-In esque. 5

Noise, aggression, and fun. Yes.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Unbelievable,hardcore punk tracks that last longer than 2 minutes. Didnt know these existed!

Beautiful album. The fact this has like, a 2.5 is a sign of the narrow vision of a lot of people doing this -- Music extends beyond your limited perspective, past The Beatles and Rolling Stones. Allow music to wash over you on its own terms. The world of music is an ocean and you limit yourself to a puddle. Also, "oughhh it's too loud" "it's so loud" "ooh my ears" you're 18-39 and you don't know how to adjust the volume on your phone? C'mon now. Am I being disingenous? No more than the people throwing a 1 at this cause a guy yells a bit.

Die letzte Gitarrenband, yeah!

I wish it didn’t hurt my ears so much, because I actually think it sounds fantastic

This makes me want to run face first through a brick wall. The guitar work is really great and noisy. The vocals are perfect for the style. The almost thirty seconds of feedback at the beginning of Super Unison is awesome. The long songs give opportunity for the musicianship to shine.

Just one of those unexplainable perfect albums. These gentlemen accomplished their goals mightily with a powerful yet contemplative record for the ages

kickass as fuck

Oh yeah, pump that feedback into my veins!

Go ahead and sign me up for the 1001 Post-Hardcore Albums-list, please.

This was the one post hard-core album I really got into at the time. I always meant to properly explore more but never got round to it. Maybe nothing else would live up to it.

Love this

FUCK YES. I had no idea this was a thing. I love Rocket From The Crypt, I love At The Drive-In, and this is exactly halfway 'twixt the two. Guttural screaming and chaotic guitars. Enough energy to fuel a mission to Jupiter. Another reason to love the 1001 Albums project.

I love this album. Reminds me of college house parties where we would host hardcore bands coming through Tempe. Bummed to hear the singer died last year - he definitely has one of the greatest rock voices ever.

this is awesome. thank you so much

Painfully complex at times, you can see where their dissonance would make it hard to pick up broader acceptance.

I could not be happier that the list includes this one. Genuinely a top 5 album of all time. These guys are masters of tension + relief, and expert song craftsmen. This thing as held up spectacularly. Still sounds heavy to this day. Can not praise this enough 🙏

This rocks. hell yeah. extremely cool. The Constantines in their noisier segments sound a lot like this. Heard about this band a ton but never listened, had no idea they sounded like this or that it was so short-lived. Total breath of fresh air in the 1001 albums list. On my personal list, I might say that I prefer the bigger range the Constantines/Fugazi/etc. have and that sticking to tense nervous energy doesn't get the full potential of this kind of sound. On this list, easy 5. crime: yanked. (⌐■_■)

Rick Froberg forever

First of all: RIP Rick Froberg This album just rips. I'm a big fan of pretty much anything that John Reis and Rick Froberg have done. I seriously was excited to see this as my album of the day. My wife and I were both home today and I advised my wife to spend an hour outside sunning because I would be playing this one very loudly and acting a fool in the house while I did. I don't know. I just don't know what else to say it's just so good. A friend of mine has the cover art tattooed on his chest maybe he should be the one writing this review because I'm not qualified. 5 emphatic stars. If you like this album at all do yourself a favor and listen to their other album and then go get into Hot Snakes, Obits, Pitchfork, Rocket From The Crypt, and anything else those 2 fine gentleman made. Woooooo!

For this review, I will look at the original tracklisting and not include the bonus tracks with the 2003 re-release. I had not heard of Drive Like Jehu before today. They seem to have been a short-lived post-hardcore punk band from the 90s that released only two albums, with Yank Crime being the second. Listening to it, I was blasted away by the melodic guitar hooks, Mark Trombino's pounding percussion, and Rick Froberg's commanding vocal style. Adding to that experience were odd time signatures and more complex rhythmic structures akin to math rock. Then you get into the lyrics, and Rick gets visceral in his writing as topics range from fractured relationships on "Sinews" and "Do You Compute?" to self-destruction on "Golden Brown" to ecological disasters on "Here Come the Rome Plows" and "Luau". There's a great deal of poignant angst that comes across in the words and the sonic noise that carries them. I get that this abrasive style of music is not for everyone, but Drive Like Jehu delivered in spades within the short time they had together. It's apparent how later acts like At the Drive-In and Deftones took note of these guys. Give it a spin.

a rly bad dissociative day today so i almost didnt get to this but i threw it on while closing at work and its even better then i remember and kind of the best music ever if we're being honest. moments here that do with hardcore guitar tone what autechre do with a daw...pure vivid sonic worldbuilding that make me hear the stomps of 50 foot creatures (i dont know what they look like but i know what it feels like to be in their presence) and the crashing of upsidedown waves (in oceans of liquids that are colors that dont exist in our world). fills up the entire space of my ears and brain and heart so theres no room for anything else while its playing...exhausting, but obviously rewarding, i think im gonna keep this one in rotation a bit beyond this cursory project listen. this album could be ur life

Banger sur banger

5/5 - absolutely rad

Easily one of the best post-hardcore albums I've ever heard

I swear the people here will just hate anything that isn't Bowie or The Beatles. I get that this brand of hardcore punk can't be everyone's thing, but come on people at least give it a fair chance! I love this. The passion, the rawness, the emotion. All the way through it's nothing other than amazing.

Was not expecting anything close to post hardcore on this. Fuck yeah.

Reminds me a lot of Skeleton Key :) Now I want to hear the band Rocket from the Crypt as well.

Brilliant, brutal and unquestionably influential. I missed them when they were first around, only aware of them being spoken of in hushed reverential tones. I was massively into Fugazi and Nation of Ulysses back in '94 so am kicking myself I missed Drive Like Jehu. Anyway this is a fantastic album

Erratic and hyperactive is how I would describe this to anyone who hasn't heard At the Drive-in. If you have heard At the Drive-in, I'd say subtract a few levels of hyperactivity and crazy babbling lyrics from them and you'd have this record. Pretty good shit if it's what you like.