Yank Crime
Drive Like Jehu
1994
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.
WikipediaI 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.
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.
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.
i am a masochist for this album and it never stops beating me up fav track: super unison
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.
Slint if they weren't incels? Math-rocky, abrasive, punk, a good listen so far.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.....
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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"
Album brut et on sent qu'ils ont mis tous leur coeur, des morceaux variés
Un mélange de Nirvana et de n’importe quelle toune de Tony Hawk. Typique du début 90. On voit bien la rage de la génération perdue des enfants de San Diego. Ce n’est pas commercial en raison des tounes qui partent après 47 secondes. Mais ROCK AND ROLL!
YOOOO, great stuff, love the skronky post hardcore, the changes in speed and tempo, the loud noisy production
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
Never heard of this band before listening. I was pleasantly surprised!
Sometimes an album comes along that you've never heard of (even when you pride yourself on knowing some obscure sh*t) and just knocks you over. This was one of those albums. The energy her was equaled by the musicianship. I looked at the genre tags for this out of curiosity and it's labeled as "post-hardcore." I can definitely hear the punk influence and the Sonic Youth influence. Favorite tracks: All of them. Most Played track: "Do you compute"
I did enjoy this. I never liked the term “math rock,” though. I like the idea of combining odd time signatures with raw energy. It just… went on too long. The album felt like it should have been 40 minutes. But with CDs, everyone was for a while all about releases being more than 45 minutes. Still, I wish the band came out with more stuff. I would have liked to have heard them evolve. So like a 3.6, rounds up to a 4.
Not to be lumped in with the garden variety 'rebellious loud noise bands'. This one is creative with impeccably clean timing. expectations subverted.
Proto screamo. Love it. Though with this energy, you would hope for songs shorter than 9mins!
Awesome early hardcore album. Sounded a bit like a mix of SOAD and Tool. Not a perfect album, but definitely enjoyed it.
Felt like Nirvana "lite" - good early 90s grungy vibes but lacking the songwriting chops that nirvana had. First song was pretty annoying though most of the album stayed pretty solid all the way through.
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?
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.
Ja, niet bepaald een gemakkelijke plaat, maar die gekte erin vind ik wel weer helemaal te gek. Ga ik vaker draaien.
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.
This is badass. Not really into emo and screamo, which this album apparently helped beget, but to my ear this sounds like noise rock meets post-rock, which is right up my alley. This is another solid 4.5. Possibly more listens would yield a 5. Fave track - "Luau" maybe? Or "Do You Compute"....
Pleasantly surprised by this one. Off the bat the first song didn’t really rub me the right way, but after a few songs I started really enjoying it. The songs have a really good pace so each is a sort of experience. 7/10
I've never listened to this band before and now I don't really know why, this is pretty great. I've never been a huge fan of hardcore outside of Fugazi but they kind of always felt like their own thing and I've never dug much deeper, I've barely listened to Minor Threat. In my head I'm always kind of looking for pop hooks so I prefer the punkier end of loud, fast non metal stuff. I'll probably still prefer that but I'm tempted to explore more now. Also I love Sonic Youth (a band that are not strangers to a pop hooks) and I can hear some of the same kind of dissonance that feels like one of their signatures here.
Another example of something that I'd never heard of, that us up my street. I dig things that are post-hardcore and this is nice.
The perfect balance between loud and passionate with complex, time signatures. Sometimes I like my music loud - this is a good choice.
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
Wow, belle découverte pour moi ici. Définitivement un band qui a influencé les Every Time I Die, The Bronx et Fear Before The March Of Flames, 3 bands que j'ai découvert au début des années 2000. Je suis fan des construction mélodiques qui sont faites à partir des dissonances. En plus l'énergie est contagieuse. On a un bon balancement dans la voix aussi entre la voix mélodique et plus criarde. L'autre band du guitariste, Rocket From the Crypt, est plus accessible et plaira sûrement à plus de gens, mais j'ai une petit préférence pour le côté très indie de Drive Like Jehu. Je n'ai pas porté attention aux textes, mais musicalement, j'adore.
I think this would have benefitted from being half as long. I liked a good amount of it but also felt a little exhausted by the end. Favorite: New Math
I wanted to listen multiple times because I just couldn't tell what I liked and what I didn't. Aggressive hardcore songs are common, even some that have melodic breaks in them, but the length of the songs is what seemed uncommon to me. I still don't know if it was good or bad, but I've listened 3-4 times and still go back to it, so I guess that means I like it.
Wasn't expecting to hear any mathcore on this list, but here we are. I thought the guitars were really interesting in this. I appreciated how they used intricate angular guitar riffs to supplement the raw angry sound. To me, it never comes off as brutality for it's own sake, but something more intentional and musical if you listen more closely.
I've never been much of a post-hardcore guy but this album is warming me up to it. Punchy, emotional, and hypnotic; good stuff!
This would've been in my wheelhouse in '94 if I knew it. It hits in that true post-punk / early grunge bell. My only gripe is no album from this genre / era should be more than forty minutes, the 1:10 length of this album drags out a good experience into a meh one. Especially when you have a nine minute track and then a 9 ½ minute version to close out the album. 3.5 / 5.
Fun album, although I listened to it a few times and nothing about it really sticks in my mind. Best track: Here Comes the Rome Plows
The next transition in post-hardcore from the likes of Fugazi, surely influencing later genres such as math rock and emo. It's loud, chaotic, and abrasive. These songs take however much time as they want, with 2 songs going over 9 minutes. The melodies are incredibly complex and interesting, constantly shifting time signatures and tempo and repeating themes to the point where you never know where a song is going. The music is intentionally off at countless points and it just grabs your attention the whole ride. You can tell there is purpose to what they do, even if the structure isn't well-defined. Much like prog rock and death metal, it's a bit too much to separate these tracks when they're so in your face, and can be overwhelming at its 70-minute timestamp. But the more I listen to it, the more I can separate what makes each track stand out.
Yeah this kicks ass and goes hard and also slaps. Balls out garage hardcore fuck-off high-gain glory
LOURD Prefs : Here Comes the Rome Plows, Golden Brown, Luau, Super Unison, New Intro, New Math, Human Interest, Sinews Moins pref : Do You Compute?
Mais c'est génial Pourquoi je ne connaissais pas ? Je donne mon avis semaine prochaine quand je l'aurai réécouté 15x de plus
This was legit a great surprise. When I woke up and checked what album I would be playing today, I kinda didn't want to play this one. "It's too early for post-hardcore" I said. lol But I played it anyways, and boy oh boy it was great end to end. At The Drive-in and Mars Volta vibes through and through, this album was an instant save for me.
Definitely sounds like a band I'd find today in a dive bar punk show. But pretty forward for 1994, interesting counterpoint to grunge for sure. I enjoyed a lot of the weirder noise elements and atonal flourishings as well, but it was a bit too long to me. Towards the end it definitely starts to show a bit of the proto-emo trappings. Probably could have stopped the album halfway and been great as-is. Still very nice, if not a bit tiring. Interesting this is their 2nd and final album though.
Wow - never knew how much Cloud Nothings ripped off this sound. If you told me this was a Cloud Nothings album, I wouldn't have batted an eye. I would like it more if it was a shorter, tighter 40 min.
Love the pure expression of emotion. However some parts devolve a little too much into the "noise" genre for my tastes. The melodic parts really get me pumped, just wish they broke out into it slightly more often.