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damn if they did an at action park reissue.. jesus.
i remember getting at action park.. i was playing in RUINHORSE, so this was 6 years ago.. we were basically a big black/sonic youth tribute band... and i remember reading a little about rapeman and thinking it sounded amazing but then hearing about shellac.. so i downloaded "idea of north" on napster or winmx or whatever it was back then.. and was like "holy shit i love this!" and then found at action park at a skate shop a few weeks later... couldn't believe it was in there, not like the cd selection was huge or anything... it was all like skate punk bands, bones brigade and all that shit but there was the lil' cardboard cd that said SHELLAC. AT ACTION PARK. and i was like "fuck it it's $10 i'll take a chance."
and i remember listening to it like 3 or 4 times.. i wasn't familiar with "math rock" or anything like that at the time (though calling shellac "math rock" can be considered questionable, for the sake of this story let's leave that term in here), so i was mostly just amazed how different this sounded than anything i'd ever heard before.. yeah, it was still screamin' geeky steve albini, but this seemed so much more.. refined. and i was wondering why not every song sounded like idea of north, haha.. then i realized that every song was actually really really different. and all were important and powerful in their own weird way.
it sounded like nothing i'd ever heard. and honestly, i can't think of many bands i've heard since then that sound like shellac. you'll hear minimalist power trios with math parts, but.. shellac just really have it going on when it comes to inventive song structures and making the discordant seem normal. they're not as complex or as noisey as they are usually thought to be, they're just really really smart, tight, and unique. if only all bands could be like that.
then, i bought terraform and downloaded all the singles and then i got a chance to see them a few months later at rhinos in bloomington.. i bought 1000 hurts on vinyl and got the cd with it. and then there was no shellac activity (except some live shows but none around here!) for years... and this album dropped and .. i haven't listened to it as much as i would like to but it's still amazing.
and i totally agree.. at action park sounds fantastic, the volume's just too low. i don't see any problem with the way any of their records sound, though i'm going to have to give a nod to terraform as the one that sounds the best.
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