Drive Like Jehu - The post-hardcore centrifuge

Although Drive Like Jehu's career burned out across just two LPs (and in the span of five years, between 1990 and 1995), it can be placed, without any reverential hesitation, among the most original and important of the early-90s post-hardcore scene; despite the scant number of songs they wrote, the comparison with the genre's "greats" doesn't seem at all far-fetched.

Hailing from San Diego, and all veterans of significant musical and life experiences in the US underground of the late 80s, Drive Like Jehu (namely Rick Froberg, guitar and vocals; John "Speedo" Reis, guitar and vocals; Mark Trombino, drums and production; Mike Kennedy, bass) managed to pull off the feat of revitalizing the glacial, cerebral, apathetic atmospheres of the "Slint saga", warping them into a remarkably expressive and intense universe.

The band's sound, in truth, is rooted in the major experiences forged within the post-hardcore sphere, first and foremost in those artists we can consider the genre's foremost codifiers in its most classic sense, namely Jesus Lizard and, above all, Fugazi, the band's true "adoptive fathers".

The results Froberg and co. arrive at, however, are relatively different and removed from those of the forefather bands: where MacKaye and Picciotto were cerebral, detached, reflective and calculated, far from what is commonly called the "expressive urgency" of old-school hardcore, Drive Like Jehu wield a decidedly more direct charge.

Drive Like Jehu, at bottom, represent one of the "highest" and most authentic expressions of what would become "emo-core", in that they turned the achievements of Fugazi toward a more visceral, "corporeal" form of expression, managing the feat of preserving an aura of extreme elegance.

Their art is uncompromising, to the point of seeming almost excessive and disproportionate in its fervor, yet it is extremely rich and refined.

In the San Diego band one finds, albeit in a peculiar form, the classic canons of their reference musical universe, along with a prelude to the contemplative, indolent mood that characterizes much alternative music of the 90s. Here too, in fact, the will to strive after something resembling the "inside revolution" longed for by the generation of the early decade seems irremediably lost. No utopia: the music of Froberg and co. is without a shadow of a doubt the music of the "post-rock" and "post-hardcore" era.

Its forms, however, turn out to be decidedly peculiar.

Fugazi and Jesus Lizard, as we said; but the sound of these Californians also has roots elsewhere, and is decidedly original: when talking about Drive Like Jehu it's impossible to ignore the melodic vein of Husker Du and Squirrel Bait.

Moreover, if today it's possible to spot progressive drifts within post-hardcore, a significant share of the credit goes precisely to the four from San Diego, refined musicians with extremely solid compositional and performing skills, among the few — and in any case among the very first — able to readapt the complex structures typical of "progressive" music into a completely different context; and that's not all: Froberg and co. must also be counted among the most important experiences of so-called "math-rock", given the extreme complexity of their rhythmic structures (often based on continuous syncopations and the rhythmic shifts typical of minimalism, the so-called "patterns": short phrases of differing meter and length that, as such, tend to create, within the same piece, an extremely varied array of rhythmic combinations).

All things considered, the greatness of the four from San Diego lies in their ability to absorb such vast and imposing sources, and then carve out a universe of their own, unique and inimitable.

The first, intense seconds of "Caress" lead us into the depths of the band's debut album (titled simply Drive Like Jehu, released by Headhunter in the year of grunge, 1991), one of the highest achievements the hardcore era ever reached.

The ferocious guitar glissandos from Beis leave no doubt as to what the listener is about to face: the world of Drive Like Jehu is a concentrate of rage, searing tension and existential anguish; it seems to want to summon and give shape to all the pain and all the adolescent hopes of the world, as if it wanted to represent the definitive endpoint of an entire epic (80s American underground). When the other instruments make their triumphant entrance, the track is enriched with a sinister "symphonic" touch; and towering over everything is Froberg's voice, among the most visceral in rock history: a thin blade that can hardly leave anyone indifferent.

"Caress" makes clear what will be the stylistic guiding parameters of the whole record: relatively long tracks (between 3 and a good 9 minutes) divided into various sections as per the progressive-rock playbook; extensive use of so-called "phasing" as well as frequent tempo changes; surgical, calligraphic guitars; and then a voice that reclaims the hardcore tradition only to push it, perhaps, to its most extreme consequences in terms of expressiveness.

Drive Like Jehu doesn't contain a single track that could be considered filler or even simply "out of place": its greatness lies in its flawlessness, which brings it close to contemporary masterpieces like "Repeater", as well as in its rigorous formal discipline. A formal discipline that, in the end, expresses the mood of someone who has stopped believing even in the ideal that had set fire to a slice of American youth at the start of the decade, namely hardcore-punk and its desire to turn the world of music — and thus American society as a whole — inside out like a sock.

Just listen to "Spikes To You" to believe it, the shortest and perhaps most hardcore track of the bunch, built on a majestic sound and a rhythm set on strong accents with a vaguely martial tone, as well as on the machine-gun bursts of the guitar, which produces nervous, almost "acid" riffs. "Step On Chamelon" doubles down: a purely instrumental introduction serves as a prelude to a new vocal duet, built on short phrases and lacking any real melody (so much so that at times it recalls hip-hop); it all quickly resolves into a powerful acceleration and finally into a "call and response" between Reis and Froberg, in which the melodic crescendo (built on a major third interval), meant to create tension, dies down into the "calm" of a descending melody.

With compositions like these, Drive Like Jehu also prove themselves masters in the use of "classic" compositional structures within a context that is, for all intents and purposes, their polar opposite. The hypnotic stasis that opens "O' Pencil Sharp" is sublime instead in how it evokes the atmospheres of ambient music. After more than two minutes of chiming sounds, the band engages in a skillful instrumental dialectic of fullness and emptiness, darkness and shafts of light. It all carries on until the longed-for arrival of a peace that, however, smells more of resignation than serenity. Every illusion of possible collective change has vanished, and the positive, active fervor of early-80s hardcore seems to have disappeared into thin air.

"Atom Jack" leads back into pop-core territory, unveiling another remarkable melody alongside whiplashing guitars and the usual emphatic march of the rhythm section. "If It Kills You" is pure legend, the masterpiece within the masterpiece: 7 minutes of magic, introduced by a series of supersonic bass runs interspersed with the chiming of Reis's guitar; all of it stretching out over an interminable, hypnotic minute; and then in come first Trombino's relentless drums, then the guitars, unfurling in broad sweeps, and finally Froberg's voice, tracing a melody built on two short crescendo phrases. The chorus rightfully stands among the most "cathartic" and intense moments in rock history. "If It Kills You" is a wonderful generational anthem in reverse, the definitive burial of every "Anarchy in the Uk" and every illusion that came with it.

"Good Luck In Jail" is another dazzling example of the band's style, twisted and ferocious, in which both the recklessness of the rhythm section and the flights of Reis's guitar — which at times evoke Fugazi, at others Sonic Youth — are geared toward maximum expressiveness. "Turn It Off" is a frontal assault built on the dialectic of acceleration and calm, granting no respite for over 6 minutes. Froberg doesn't so much sing as scream, and the melody is once again built on short crescendo phrases and an amphetamine-fuelled chorus. And the atmosphere always seems to be a prelude to an imminent catastrophe.

The record closes with "Future Home Of Stucco Monstruosity", yet another flawless track in which Drive Like Jehu skillfully, masterfully and originally recycle their own musical language.

Three years of silence would follow the masterpiece, broken only by the release of the single "Hand Over First/Bullet Train To Vegas", before Yank Crime (Interscope, 1994), the band's second and final album.

The standout traits of the debut are reworked here with real personality, giving rise to compositions with a decidedly progressive flavor, though lacking some of the magic aura that had made the debut unmissable.

Not that the album lacks notable tracks, genuine infernal rides driven by relentless rhythms: just listen to the opening "Here Come The Rome Plows", perhaps the record's masterpiece, a track that hammers forward with martial drive yet still manages to offer melodic passages that are anything but trivial, shining with a light all its own.

A long, minimal instrumental intro, during which a twisting bass and then the drums are gradually layered onto the guitar, serves as a prelude to the epic melody of "Do You Compute", another remarkable track suspended between slowed-down sections, where Froberg whispers, and genuine sonic explosions. The record's distinctly progressive streak comes to full fruition in the nine-and-a-half minutes of "Luau". The track assails the listener with the usual whiplash guitar and intricate rhythms, while in the background flickers of Froberg's vocal performance can be glimpsed, as he toys with the word that gives the song its title to the point of exhaustion. The instrumental coda is a tangle of brutal distortion. "Human Interests" seems to change register, riding a brief intro in which the guitar dials down the rhythmic aggression and veers toward almost folk territory, but it's an illusion, since the track quickly returns to the usual relentless martial rhythms, accompanied by the guitar's mesmerizing flourishes: while retaining undeniable charm, the composition also hints at how Drive Like Jehu's musical language was starting to lose some effectiveness, and some creative spark.

The closing track, in any case, is an all-time classic. "Sinews", clocking in at over nine minutes, momentarily veers toward more melancholic, almost slowcore atmospheres, before catching fire in a jangle of guitar. Here the music takes on an unusual dreamlike, psychedelic dimension, in which even the vocal component, built on the alternation of "delicate" passages and overflowing screams, seems to dissolve.

The album marks the end of Drive Like Jehu's brief career, whose members would go on to set fire to the American post-hardcore scene and beyond with other projects (just think of Trombino, who would go on to produce Blink 182), some of them decidedly noteworthy (Hot Snakes above all).

But none of the various heirs, imitators or admirers would ever manage to match the stature of the two albums released by the original band, true milestones for the entire American underground of the decade and beyond (just think of the recent breakthrough of Circle Takes The Square).

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