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From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Yank Crime

Drive Like Jehu

1994

Buy At Rough Trade
Yank Crime
Album Summary

Yank Crime is the second and final album by the San Diego, California post-hardcore band Drive Like Jehu, released in 1994 by Interscope Records. It was the band's major-label debut and its artwork was created by singer/guitarist Rick Froberg. The band toured in support of the album but then quietly disbanded the following year as the members moved off to pursue other interests. In later years, as guitarist John Reis found international recognition with his band Rocket from the Crypt, a gradually growing audience began to pinpoint Drive Like Jehu's music as a catalyst for the eclectic San Diego music scene and the emerging national emocore scene of the 1990s. In 2003 Reis re-released Yank Crime on his Swami Records label, including on it the songs from the band's "Hand Over Fist" / "Bullet Train to Vegas" single and the original version of "Sinews" that had appeared on the compilation Head Start to Purgatory.

Wikipedia

Rating

2.68

Votes

12473

Genres

  • Punk
  • Rock

Reviews

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Jul 22 2023
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5

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

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May 19 2021
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5

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.

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Nov 26 2021
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5

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.

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Jun 11 2021
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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.

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Apr 22 2021
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4

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

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Jan 09 2023
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3

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.

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Sep 19 2022
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2

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.

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Jan 31 2022
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5

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!

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Jun 30 2021
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5

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.

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Jan 25 2021
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5

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

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Jul 14 2021
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1

It wanted to be annoying and it has achieved it

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Feb 02 2022
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5

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.

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Sep 22 2021
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3

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.

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Nov 25 2021
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2

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

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Mar 17 2021
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2

Too much screaming, I don't like it

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Dec 11 2022
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2

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

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Apr 02 2021
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1

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.

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Dec 16 2022
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5

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"

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Jun 01 2022
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5

First album that is new to me to get 5 stars

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Jan 14 2024
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5

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.

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Oct 20 2022
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5

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

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Sep 26 2023
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5

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.

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May 05 2023
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5

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

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Oct 16 2024
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4

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?

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Mar 01 2022
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4

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.

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May 27 2022
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4

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.

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Nov 19 2021
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4

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

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Feb 28 2021
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4

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

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Aug 05 2022
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4

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

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Mar 16 2022
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4

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

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Mar 23 2022
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4

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

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Feb 02 2022
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4

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?

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Apr 16 2021
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4

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

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Mar 08 2024
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3

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.

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Mar 07 2021
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3

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.

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Sep 22 2024
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2

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

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Sep 19 2024
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2

Nirvana would never do me like this.

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Apr 14 2021
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1

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

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Jun 10 2022
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1

Je suis pas énervé, je suis juste déçu

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Nov 25 2020
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1

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.

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Jun 01 2022
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1

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

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Apr 24 2024
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1

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

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Apr 27 2022
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1

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.....

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Sep 21 2022
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1

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

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Sep 20 2024
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1

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.

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Jul 22 2024
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5

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

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Jun 30 2024
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5

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.

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Jun 13 2024
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5

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

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Aug 30 2024
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5

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

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Jun 19 2024
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5

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

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Mar 02 2023
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5

Album brut et on sent qu'ils ont mis tous leur coeur, des morceaux variés

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May 13 2024
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5

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.

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Apr 27 2024
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5

Fantastic album from Drive Like Jehu. It's a great post-hardcore record full of passion, energy, intensity, and incredible noise. It brings together a perfect balance of hardcore, punk, no-wave, and post-rock where the quieter parts are a bit Slint-like and the hard energetic parts are very reminiscent of Fugazi from the same era. No wonder this is slowly starting to gain a justified reputation as an overlooked masterpiece of its time.

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May 29 2024
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5

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

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Apr 17 2024
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5

Nice cross rhythms on the first track. Love the 2nd - quirky Pearl Jam in 3. Great 3rd. And 4th. 5th. 6th. Yeah, all the rest. Whatever this fellow is saying at the top of his voice, he means it. 2nd listen (!) for lyrics. 1. Shades of California Uber Alles. 2. Do You Compute? One of the best "fuck you"s I've ever heard. 4. Nihilistic anger. Grrr! Favourite riff: 9. Sinews 6:42 2nd favourite 10. Hand over Fist 3:35 (reminds me of the end of Unsung by Helmet). Lots of loud repetitive riffs and noise, which I've not been into recently, but I heard this early morning while writing an essay and it had the effect of background brown noise - the odd rhythms helped with this. Nice contrasts. Don't know how many more listens I'll give it, but I really liked this one. Yep, yep.

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Mar 13 2024
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5

Wow! This one is really surprising! I've seen this band referenced before but never checked them out. For 1994 this is incredible! This is probably a 4.5 for me... right up my alley when it comes to aggressive music. I'm kind of embarrassed for not knowing this one. I don't know how I missed this, must have just been the name, and timing, but this is a new favorite! Can't believe this has the same guy that did Scream, Dracula, Scream!

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Mar 25 2024
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5

finally some good fucking music on this forsaken website.

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Mar 04 2024
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5

Oh... something new. I like the guitar and music overall.... Especially on Do You Compute. Not feeling the vocals. There is so much interesting music here... but those damn vocals. Okay.. in an odd way Super Unison's vocals reminds me of listening to Incesticide for the first time. I think I can forgive these vocals for the long-form experimental sonic goodies. I've been won over. 5 stars.

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Sep 05 2024
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5

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.

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Sep 23 2022
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5

I want to listen to this again. Like WANT to.

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Mar 01 2024
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5

Iconic post-punk band. These guys definitely majorly influenced a TON of music I adore so I have so much respect for them. They don't suffer from the "Seinfeld is unfunny" syndrome either, this album absolutely rips.

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Jan 29 2024
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5

Without this post-hardcore doesn’t become what it becomes. At the Drive-In, Thursday and many others owe this album a huge debt. It’s ferocious, catchy and downright unthinkably good. There’s something to the pure and unchained madness of this album and the band that made it. I fully fuck with this!

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Sep 28 2022
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5

This has been a good week for me on 1001 albums generator. A lot of 4s, a lot of 5s, the page keeps giving me good albums, and as soon as I've heard that virtuoso but punk-ish riff at the beginning of "Here Comes the Rome Plows" I was like, "oh crap, this is going to be good!" And it was. This is basically emo mathcore and honestly, I'm digging it in a way I didn't expect. This album confirms my theory that, if I were born in a different decade, I would've been an emo, lol.

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Jan 05 2024
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5

Loved this one. I could hear its influences in quite a few of my favorite bands today!

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Sep 09 2022
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5

Same thing I said about Stone Roses

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Feb 21 2024
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5

Like Thursday before Thursday learned how to write songs.

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Feb 29 2024
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5

This is an album I’ve always wanted to listen to but somehow never got round to. It’s cited as a massive influence by loads of bands I love, and deserves its reputation as an essential post-hardcore/emo record. It’s extremely my shit and I’ll definitely be revisiting this a tonne. This is what the club is all about! I’m very excited by this one.

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Apr 02 2024
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5

This ticked all the boxes for me, I generally like post-hardcore but this has just the right amount of aggression and complexity. From the first track I was hooked. Still amazed the guitarist was in rocket from the crypt, the jump from this to radio friendly ska punk is very unexpected. Definitely prefer Jehu. Wouldn't say I'm a proper fan of any 90s post hardcore bands but this could change with DLJ, loved this album and will be listening again excessively.

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Apr 02 2024
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5

Post-punk emo of the best kind. Another of those bands like Hot Snakes / RFTC / At The Drive-In that seemed to influence every great band of the 00’s. These should have been so much bigger. Saying that, I used to listen to these a lot yet I dont think I ever had this record. Think I stuck to their debut and didnt venture beyond, managing to bypass their biggest record. Maybe thats part of their appeal: they sort of drifted by and created a cult monster in doing so. Who knows. This is class though

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Jan 24 2024
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5

post-hardcore adiptivo. Excelente de principio a fin.

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Dec 25 2023
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5

FUCK. YES. This is exactly the type of longform, noisy shit that I love when Sonic Youth does it, and this shit rocks hard! Whatever the singer is usually inaudible, and quite frankly, indistinguishable from the rest of the noise, but I hardly care, because this rocks so hard that I'm jamming harder than most albums have ever had me jamming before. I could perhaps understand this being annoying, but I'm too busy loving this to care, even if it is a little longwinded. If this is the closest we get to emo on the whole generator then sign me up to finding more noise rock like this. Fuck yeah!

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Dec 18 2023
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5

Fantastic album for its time. Very Swans, trail of dead. Luau is fantastic.

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Jun 15 2022
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5

One of the more important proto-emo albums of all time; with every hook that a guitar riff would bring and the yearning and screaming that comes from the vocal, Yank Crime should be considered as one of the greatest punk albums of the 90s. If there was one album to end things on and plant a flag into the ground of what was to be the future of punk, this is the one.

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Jan 18 2024
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5

This seems like a legit hidden gem. The guitars are amazing and unique. The lyrics and vocals fit perfectly. The band just kind of disappeared after this album so it didn't gain a huge following. Great find on this list.

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Sep 11 2024
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5

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!

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Aug 03 2022
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5

This first track is a BANGER. I'm fucking out of breath just listening to it. If the rest of the album is like this it's another 5-star. The hooks in this album are GREAT. Yeah this is 5 stars. The writing is crazy. First time we've gotten two 5-stars back to back.

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Dec 01 2023
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5

Can see how this led to emo bands. Good stuff. Some of the albums on here aren't that spectacular in their own right but have spun off whole genres of music. That's why they are notable. That being said this is a solid album.

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Sep 28 2023
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5

I still can't believe I went so long without listening to this. The runtime put me off initially, but I find that it helps with the absorbing of the record. This album is one that really demands all of your attention, whether with the screaming, or the chainsaw guitars that sometimes come out of nowhere. The title of "one of the essential emo classics" is well deserved. Favorite track: Here Come the Rome Plows ROME PLOWS! ROME PLOWS!

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Sep 21 2023
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5

Including Drive Like Jehu's *Yank Crime* in this list and ignoring Fugazi's *13 Songs*, *In On The Kill Taker*, *Red Medecine* and *The Argument* is a crime all by itself (*Repeater* is a great album, but I would place these other Fugazi LPs before it imho). That (major) gripe aside, I cannot thank Dimery and co. enough for selecting this other seminal post-hardcore gem in their book. I was aware of who John Reis is because of all the nice acts he was a part of after Drive Like Jehu (Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes, Plosivs...), but somehow I had not listened to Drive Like Jehu yet. And boy oh boy, how was I missing out! Browsing through Wikipedia to learn more about this band, I was saddened to learn that the band's singer and guitarist Rick Froberg (also the frontman of Hot Snakes) passed away from "natural causes" two months ago. I had not heard of those tragic news, oddly enough. In a better world, more people would have talked about his sudden death. I'm not gonna beat about the bush any longer: *Yank Crime* is up there with the best representatives of the post-hardcore / emocore genre. And with a track such as "New Maths", you could amost say Drive Like Jehu initiated mathcore / math rock, and this in a very tongue-in-cheek manner (get your inner calculators ready to count the different time signatures there, lol). Apart from " New Maths", *Yank Crime*'s highlights are "Do You Compute", " Luau" and "Golden Brown". The first two are admittedly long compositions, but they're totally worth your time if you're a fan of the genre, thanks to their breathtaking, harmonically tense climaxes. And if you're a post-hardcore newbie, don't get too overwhelmed by the intricate and "difficult" sonic architecture of the album's opener. "Here Come The Rome Plows" is mostly here to set the tone, actually. Everything that comes after may turn out to be extremely rewarding if you want to get acquainted with post-hardcore or similar "punk" subgenres. Normally, I would give a 4/5 - 4.5/5 grade to this record. But given how unfairly low the global score for it is in this app, I'm gonna push that grade to a perfect 5/5 mark. People in here complaining that they "don't like being yelled at" should be a little more humble, I think. They're confusing their own personal limits with an "objective" stance. It's as if I complained about "being yelled at" when I'm being exposed to a bland Adele record: it's not because you're using all the clichés of what a singer is "supposed" to do on a purely technical level that the results can't be extremely grating to your subjective ears. Good art is not necessarily meant to be "beautiful" all the time anyway. And it does not necessarily need to be so in any conventional manner. Good art can also be dark, messy and blunt. Because that's a way for it to reflect our short and messy lives. Number of albums left to review: 435 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 263 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 135 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more essential to me): 170

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Sep 10 2023
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5

Jeeeez, this blew me away. Hook it to my veins.

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Jul 23 2023
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5

What a great record. It’s a shame I never listened to it before.

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Jul 03 2023
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5

Lekker stevig! Speciale ritmes en melodieën ook

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Jul 20 2023
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5

Doet me gelijk heel erg denken aan At the Drive In. En de zanger heeft dan ook gezegd, dat zonder Drive Like Jehu er geen Relationship of Command zou zijn, oftewel hun iconische post-hardcore album. Dat net als Drive Like Jehu soms ietwat (te) experimenteel aan doet, maar ook gebaseerd is op een kakofonie aan gitaargeluiden. Het legendarische At the Drive In is daarna opgesplitst in the Mars Volta, die bijna nog experimenteler waren, en het door mij geliefde Sparta, waar gitarist Jim Ward lekker de vocalen mag schreeuwen. Maar waar de liedjes een stuk minder experimenteel zijn en gewoon lekker rocken. Aangezien Sparta vast niet in deze 1001 staat en zelfs At the Drive In niet (wat blijft dit toch een zelfingenomen snobistisch lijstje bij tijd en wijlen), zullen we het met Drive Like Jehu moeten doen. Die dus niet kunnen tippen aan hun eigen legacy. Maar omdat er te weinig van dit soort muziek in staat, geef ik dit 5 sterren. Ook ter compensatie van de 1en van anderen :-P

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May 14 2023
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5

Unexpected suprise. This is riht up my ally. I love the rifts

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May 12 2023
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5

Hearing this album for the first time completely rewired my DNA, and I wasn't even a teenager at the time. This is the goalpost to meet (and fail to meet because no-one else does it like this album).

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Sep 19 2024
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5

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. (⌐■_■)

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