UNWOUND New Plastic Ideas (KRS) And again the Kill Rock Stars label brings to us a new generation of boys and girls with an agenda; yelling and playing loud chiming guitars and generally expressing socially conscious angst in a very emotional manner. There's no winking satire or comic indulgence on these Washington state bands' first LPs, only a seemingly inexhaustible wealth of energy and pathos.
Heavens to Betsy are a female duo of guitar and drums and one may sense the smell of Bikini Kill in some of her self-assured sarcastic howl, but it's going somewhere else. Yes, it's stripped down and pissed, simplicity and noise, but when she screams, I mean really screams, it's quite curdling.
Unwound as a boyish power trio come off a bit more typical but no less inspired; some long and thick guitar tangents that reveal good taste in static and feedback with lyrics that offer a grim optimism to match. Vaguely Dischordian and emotive in a sense that can't really be slighted by words.
It certainly comes as a relief that these two bands indicate that there will always be a resistance of sorts to the commodification of youth culture. Even so, I still harbor some concern about Generation Y and the future. In May every commencement speech in the country addressed the Slacker Identity like it was the creation of a new archetype whose lack of responsibility would bring ruin to America. When my own stereotypes get reinforce by experience, I get worried.
Art requires a great deal of faith in the bouancy of the human soul, warding off both stony casual cynicism and lamb-like consumerist acceptance, to feel what we see on MTV or Reality Bites or Franklin Street is by no means indicative of what's to come. It's a cycle of renewed innocence, and when a band finds a perfect balance of intent and execution it's a rare and wonderful thing. Seems like there will always be intelligent, aware people, angry people like Heavens to Betsy and Unwound, and the full line-up of Rock Star killers, with the ability to recognize propaganda and market strategies and the creativity to play music that is somehow perfectly fused with attitude and conviction. (Franz Kunst)