Will Self-Destruct by The And/Ors (Review)
I once read that The Stone Roses were a representation of everything bad about ’80s music rolled into one. I don’t know if I completely agree with this; though they are incredibly overrated, the statement is at least half-true. This partially reflects the way I feel about The And/Ors, whose debut album, Will Self-Destruct, reminds me of so many bands that I loved in the ’90s during my college days. I would even go so far as to say that The And/Ors make me feel some of the things I felt then. So I wonder… should they be written off as an irrelevance for being so far behind the curve and for ignoring everything that has happened in rock since 1996?
In their press kit, The And/Ors mention power pop icons Big Star as a major influence. As a fan of Big Star myself, I couldn’t hear this at all when I first played the CD, so I tried to figure out how to make the connection. I thought it might be the way they articulate their chops, or maybe the energy that drummer Chris Wassell brings to every song. But it still seemed like a stretch.
Will Self-Destruct turns the burners on the stove up a lot higher than Big Star ever did and is much more downbeat-driven, like a classic punk album. As I got deeper into the CD, I discovered “At The Saturn Bar,” which has the same Neil Young “Zuma” flavor that has informed so many bands from The Posies to The Pernice Brothers over the last 10 years.
The And/Ors do a really good job of copping this sound, although it can’t hurt to have no-miss songwriter Daniel Black as your lead dude. Further along, “Loft Life” hits upon the touchstone harmonies that helped make everybody’s favorite Memphis Anglophiles so famous. But still, The And/Ors sound nowhere near as much like Big Star as Teenage Fanclub (another band claiming Chilton’s lineage) did on “Bandwagonesque.”
What really unites the two bands is that they are both anachronistic in their own time. Consider what happened to Big Star. Had they made “Number One Record” 5 years earlier, it may have put them in the same ring where their idols The Beatles, Byrds, and Stones held court. But Big Star hit the scene when “Brandy, You’re A Fine Girl” was the big tune, for crying out loud. When asked by a DJ whether he thought that Big Star was anachronistic for performing invasion-pop in 1974, Chilton replied, “I don’t really know. I’m just doing what’s melodious to my ears.” That’s really the point, isn’t it? All these years later, I am none the wiser that Big Star was out of step with the times. I just like the music.
Likewise, Will Self-Destruct is a virtual paean to some of the most memorable and important music of the Clinton-era. The moody and propulsive “Candy Takes The Cake” employs a full range of hooks that never repeat themselves all the way to the intersection of Spoon and Elastica. “As We Play The Tape Tricks Up” is a solid slab of ’90s power-pop cranked-up for a whole 45 seconds with Pixies’ attitude. The earnest “Terror Eyes” hardens like wet Pavement that has been “Built to Spill” into the cracks of a San Francisco street. Complete with snotty vocals from bassist Arabella Makalani, the explosive “Flexiclocks” sounds so much like New Zealand post-punk rockers the 3Ds that it scares me.
If that doesn’t about sum up where you were in the summer of ’94, the hits just keep on coming. “Time Space Changer” showcases the transcendental guitar skills of Mssrs. Black and Lane Miller while reminiscing the hi-jinx of seminal Sonic Youth. “Black Diamond Prince” puts a Polvo head on a “Bushes and Stars”-era GBV body. Holders of My Bloody Valentine’s elusive “Ecstacy And Wine” LP will spot an early Kevin Shields influence on “Neo-Disney Hype Trip.” And yet another hit, “Screams Nicole,” is a handy amalgamation of all of these sounds, complete with Norman Blake-esque lead guitar, circa “Everything Flows.”
I’m sure The And/Ors sound exactly like this CD live. There’s little overdubbing or studio-trickery here another thing they have in common with Big Star, who became pretty immediate by “Radio City.” Suffice to say, they are not engaged in the second renaissance of the studio that has been happening over the past five years or so, but that’s not for everybody, is it? Over time however, I’m sure that people’s enjoyment of this record will increase, as they become less aware of how relevant The And/Ors are in 2002, or who did what first.
Imagine listening to a Belle And Sebastian knock-off nowadays. Wouldn’t that be a little too late, and a little boring, regardless of how good it is? Or even a Strokes knock-off? It will all be different years from now as time all fades into one solid box.
Written by Jonathan Donaldson.