"Hope: And Songs To Sing" Review by "Sound as Language"
soundaslanguage.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/eulcid/
The long lost Eulcid album finally sees the light of day! The band issued their stunning debut, The Wind Blew All The Fires Out in 2002 and then seemed to disappear. Eulcid mastermind Mike Law resurfaced in another amazing band, New Idea Society. Somewhere in between Eulcid managed to record Hope: And Songs To Sing. Shortly after the band broke up which unfortunately led to the album sitting on the shelves. Thankfully, it has finally been released by the fine folks over at Exotic Fever. Its a shame this album hasnt seen release until now though cause its a great batch of songs that prove that Eulcid was one of the most overlooked and underrated bands of the last few years.
Hope: And Songs To Sing has a rather disjointed feel as the songs vary quite a bit. However, it actually adds to the listening experience rather than diminishing it. The first two tracks hit especially hard and remind me why Ive missed this band. Laws vocals echo the higher pitched sound of Guy Picciotto of Fugazi. Clip showcases Laws lyrical deftness with the telling chorus, When Information turns to dollars it is already spent/Greed is the conveyor, and fiction is present tense/Piling up on our backs is a fear we cant question/We will never notice the lullaby is sung all day. On tracks like (I Heard It) On The Radio and Checkbook you can clearly see the influence of Laws more straight-forward songwriting approach in New Idea Society. The instrumental No Vocals ..3 and the acoustic Word Of Mouth continue the diverse songwriting to spectacular results. The epic Cost Of Profit (Untitled) shows how brilliant this band was. Its lyrical daggers shoot right to the heart of the consumerism that overwhelms our society at times. Its a theme that seems to be prevalent throughout Hope: And Songs To Sing.
Ultimately this record and what Eulcid meant can be summed up in the lyrics that Law puts forth so eloquently time and time again. On Afterthought Law sings No need for volume when the genuine sings/Voices knock over un-moveable things. And on the album closer Big Heart (For Woodie Guthrie, For Walt Cordell), Law sings with unwavering passion, No one could ever burn my heart out! Call me naive but I sure as hell believe him.
We just got this link, apparently there is some other live footage up on youtube.com as well as this one, Thanks!
By Lorin Ashe,
April 2006
Eulcid was active from April 1998 to April 2002 and played 251 All Ages shows in nearly every state. The band has not played live since 2002 but has completed a new album of songs mostly written around 2001-2002. Eulcid was totally independent, a world away from the commercial underground music of the day and uninterested in continuing the cycle of the "boys only" mentality of punk. Simply Eulcid played for "everyone in the room". Though the band never officially broke up, with all three members spread between NYC, N.H. and Asheville, N.C. respectively they have no intentions of playing shows or recording more anytime.
The driving force behind the band Mike Law, formed the trio originally with Travis Shettel of Piebald and Kurt Ballou of Converge. After only a few practices it became obvious that the three members schedules were too conflicting. For Mike Law a search for focused, like minded musicians began immediately.
The first person to come to mind was Matt Redmond. He was already an established drummer who could play anything thrown at him instantly. Though he had moved 2 hours away from Mike's home in Boston to attend college he was recruited to play drums. The next logical choice was Mike's longtime best friend Chris Raiche who filled in bass duties. Though several of the songs on the cassette EP "Techniques of Neutralization" were already written, this was the real formation of Eulcid.
The band began a normal practice schedule meeting an hour away from everyones respective homes. The first point of business was to document the early songs that would become the "Techniques of Neutralization" EP. With a borrowed 8 track and microphones they retreated to a basement with friend Steve Brodsky to engineer and some telephone calls to former member Kurt to figure out some technical things. The "Techniques of Neutralization EP" was a strong hint at the obtuse nature of Law's song writing and having never been released on CD has become a much sought after group of songs.
With 400 copies of the cassette EP in tow a short summer tour followed. A few weeks with boston band The Never Never and a few dates on the Cave In/Ire summer tour rounded out the first half year of the bands existence. Though another recording "The Crane EP" was made almost immediately after the end of the summer tour with Kurt Ballou at God City studio Mike Law and the band had already begun hearing a bigger sound.
When "The Wind Blew All the Fires Out" was released in the summer of 2000 it became one of the best reviewed records of the year and to this day continues momentum as one of the most influential experimental rock records of the decade. An album that was noted by many as greater than the sum of any of its parts it weaves its way from uncountable drum fills and innovative disodent guitar sounds to beautiful melodies and hypnotic repetition. At times it seems the only thing keeping the song from falling apart is the yelping vocals hovering above the chaos of instruments. Every other track seems to be the climax of the record until finally the psuedo apex of "The Ocean vs. the Sand" brings the listener to a seemingly calm ending only to be re-awoken by the massive musical accomplishment of "Double Point Double Switch". This final track of the record is a cut-up type juxtaposition of the language already created within the album. The rigid movements of "Double Point Double Switch" calculate in a seemingly endless robotic methodology until a final shedding of all thought with the last few seconds of freedom.
The band moved on quickly after the completion of "The Wind Blew All the Fires Out". Though a busy schedule of one off shows, a short summer tour and a few winter dates with Cave In followed new songs were quick to appear. Mike's idea to have the band fulfill its manifest as modern folk music of our underground community began with some chordless experimental folk songs like "Two People Holding Hands" and a track not on the new album "Hit by a Car". They were being written fast, but after a half dozen songs were finished Matt's school schedule was becoming very intense so a hiatus became necessary.
The album was shelved for at least 6 months and the band played few shows with the exception of an invitation to play with Avail in Virginia and to be the home town host for Fugazi's first show in Boston in over 10 years. The band considered it an honor and were readying to begin work again on the record again, plan a U.S. and Europe tour and support the release of a benefit album they spear-headed for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center when Bass player Chris Raiche unexpectedly decided to return to his studies. For various reasons all three members soon found themselves spread out across the eastern U.S., But luckily not before they were able to document these songs that appear on Hope; and Songs to Sing. Recording of basic tracks took place one year after what happened to be their last show and though additional tracking by Mike Law and engineer Andrew Schneider was spread out over the next 2 years! the original energy remains. Lyrically and musically it is the bands most accessible and straight forward album to date (Though likely its last). There are still elements of that idea of modern folk music in its lyrical approach and chord progressions, but the guitar playing is still very left of center and it all appears deceivingly more subtle upon casual listening than the previous albums. Hope; and Songs to Sing is a wonderful compliment and the next logical step to "The Wind Blew All the Fires Out". It makes for a good sing-a-long as well as a completely unique listen upon close examination.
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Check out this week’s episode of Undiscovered (07/08/07) as we’ll be featuring music from Eulcid.
You’ll also hear GreyMarket, Dirty Sweet, Earl Greyhound, Canon, Willpilot, Scanners, The Walkmen, Hooray for Earth, The Prime Movers, Craig, Eulcid, Static of the Gods, State Radio, Violet Nine, Eric Colville, Flood, Gaiah, Okay Thursday, Niki Barr, Exit Clov, Banooba, Ocensize, and Dirty on Purpose.
Undiscovered- we bring Indie music to broadcast radio! Three of our affiliates stream on-line. Check the affiliates page for airtimes.
www.unsidcoveredradionetwork.com
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p.s :( band name gets pronounced incorrecly in the show
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