Torche – Harmonicraft
Release date: April 24, 2012

Artwork by one-word-name guy Santos. Despite the gnawing dinosaurs, I don’t think I’ve seen more un-rock album art for a heavy band since Jame Dean Trio’s Getting Scary.

Then again, I live in my parents’ basement with no Internet connection. So I don’t see much else besides fighting cats and grass outside my window.

Torche isn’t a metal band. There, I said it. That’s a thought I’ve entertained in the back of my head for a while now — but I couldn’t bring myself to broach the topic for fear of ridicule. “Torche…not a metal band? How dare you, dirty brigand. Have you ever listened to music?” Or at least that’s the reaction I imagine.

But seriously, after the Guided By Voices songs they covered, the general trajectory of Songs for Singles, and now with Kicking — the first track from Harmonicraft — it’s become apparent that Torche is no longer a “metal band.”

Sure, the riffs are present and there’s just enough peripheral sludge these days to fool you. That’s a given. Plus Meanderthal was flush with metal signposts. Then, when you take into account the band’s collective musical heritage (Floor, Shitstorm) and former label home (Hydra Head), I can see why you’d use the M word.

Really though, if you strip away the exoteric correlations and listen to Kicking, U.F.O or even Fat Waves — you can’t say, “This is obviously a metal band.” I’m not saying you’ll find no trace of metal in Torche these days. Far from it. Far, far from it. But calling them “metal” is no different than calling Fucked Up “hardcore” or Ted Leo “pop punk.”

Those assessments would be technically correct if you’re using a particular rubric. However, I think we all know that contrary to Central Bureaucrat No. 1′s opinion, being technically correct isn’t always the best kind of correct. At the very most, you could say that Torche is an aggressive, metal-informed rock band with pop tendencies. That’s definitely not the same as “metal band.”

Now that I’ve wasted your time with my inane conjectures, listen to Kicking. It’s a badass jam.

This record is superb front to back. I’ve been listening to it almost nonstop for weeks now, and I’ve yet to hit a lull in my enjoyment or fixate on any idiosyncrasies within the album’s framework.

But above and beyond any listening pleasure I get from it (and I do get plenty), David Comes to Life brings very specific issues to the forefront for me. They’re things we discuss regularly on Buzzgrinder, ranging from the heavy segmentation of the recording industry into genre-specific ghettos to the evolution (or lack thereof) in hardcore music at large.

It makes me wonder why Fucked Up and, say, Torche aren’t touring together. Or why bands are still writing Disfear records. Or why a label like Matador could never sign someone like Touché Amoré. Or why that gaunt dude who always wears Frenchkiss band shirts keeps refusing to pop in some Pelican.

But even with all the negativity I’m bringing to the table, seeing Fucked Up be Fucked Up reminds me that there are bands interested in exploring more aggressive forms of music without capitulating to the conventions therein. I don’t care if a record happens to be “brutal,” “heavy,” “technical” or “sludgy.” I just care if it’s good. Those words have no intrinsic value. If the music sucks, making it heavier won’t make it better. And neither will adding reverb, just for the record.

I know it’s already 2011, so this is a little less timely, but I figured we’d start off the new year lightly before getting back into the full swing of things. It’s looking like 2011 will include some potentially awesome (read: potentially awful) projects from us, and we’ll try to celebrate our 10th birthday in style.

All that said, here’s what 2010 looked like on my end. I hope it was as good a year for you, too. I was asked to do this year in review alongside some other music folks in Louisville for Peter Berkowitz of the Velocity, a local alt-weekly. I’m lazily re-printing it here for you:

I think 2010 for me — and for many others — was marked by the concerts I saw. And not just any concerts, mind you. I’m talking about bands I never thought I’d get to see: Guided By Voices, Descendents, Cap’n Jazz (both their first and last reunion shows), Devo, Snapcase and maybe a couple others I’m forgetting because of the sheer number of shows I’ve seen. It was certainly a whirlwind 2010 in that regard.

But it wasn’t all teary-eyed reunions and boxing matches with Ted Leo. In 2010, Buzzgrinder hosted its first SXSW party with over 20 bands, celebrated nine years of ruining music for everyone, broke some news stories, had a hand in bringing some killer bands to town (Titus Andronicus, High on Fire, Torche, mewithoutYou, Murder By Death to name a few), made some people mad and helped Glenn Danzig prolong his memeness on the nets.

All that said, I think the best part of 2010 for me was turning online relationships I’d forged through Buzzgrinder into real-world friendships. Sometimes when you do something day in and day out for years — regardless of your resolve — you wonder, “Why? What purpose does this even serve?”

Then you actually spend time with awesome people who share a similar outlook on life and have found a genuine camaraderie with you and other folks because of a dumb website that probably sucks. That’s why you do it. That’s what it’s all about.

And here are my top albums of the year. Not in any particular order, and no specific number. They’re pretty much just the handful of records I listened to this year that I still remember:

– Titus Andronicus — The Monitor
– Coliseum — House With a Curse
– J. Roddy Walston and the Business — J. Roddy Walston and the Business
– Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore — Dear Companion
– Ted Leo and the Pharmacists — The Brutalist Bricks
– The Seedy Seeds — Roll Deep

So many good quotes in this treatise from Mike Huckabee extolling the virtues of Torche that I couldn’t pick just one… or just 15.

UPDATE: Turns out the band also did an interview with Greg Gutfeld. So I’ve added the video of that, too.

Torche released Songs for Singles last week. To celebrate the awesome album, the boys will be making appearances here on Buzzgrinder all this week.

Most people that listen to us know that we were robbed in Chicago last May, where many (and in some cases just about all) personal items as well as music equipment were stolen. This unfortunately happens to countless bands, and it sucks.

Within a couple days of this happening, our label Hydra Head felt horrible for what had happened and set up a donations account for anyone that wanted to help us out.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who donated and had also taken the time to write us. We are grateful and were very surprised to see how many people were willing to help. Their generosity and kind words were and still are greatly appreciated. Thanks sooooo much for helping us move past this experience and leave it behind us.

What? Move along. Sir? Please. Move along. Nothing to see here. It’s just a Flying Lotus EP and a TV on the Radio side project (Maximum Balloon) that aren’t even the best of guarantees.

:: A Classic Education, Hey There Stranger (Lefse)

:: Black Country Communion, Black Country Communion (J&R)

:: Black Twig Pickers, Ironto Special (+1)

:: Brass Bed, Melt White (Park the Van)

:: Clare and the Reasons, Live in Amsterdam (Frog Stand)

:: Darren Hanlon, I Will Love You At All (Yep Roc)

:: Dominant Legs, Young At Love And Life (Lefse)

:: Fake Problems, Real Ghosts Caught on Tape (Side One Dummy)

:: Flying Lotus, Pattern + Grid World EP (Warp)

:: Frankie Rose and the Outs, Frankie Rose and the Outs (Slumberland)

More »

Torche: It’s everywhere you want to be.

See the Torche photos from Buzzgrinder’s birthday bash.

So Buzzgrinder properly turned 9 yeard old this past Saturday. I celebrated in my own special way: swimming in a giant quarry and eating the best pizza Louisville has to offer. You were probably sitting right here on BG, reading over your favorite posts of the year and trying to come up with just the right retort to that one jerk (that one jerk more than likely being me), since I imagine that’s how we Buzzgrinderers spend most of our Saturdays, right?

Well now, don’t forget that we’ll be having a proper celebration this Thursday, when High on Fire, Torche, Ohlm, Beings and Old Vikings hit Headliners Music Hall. You’ll be able to snap the elastic of a party hat around your chin and throw back a couple of cupcakes while you sway wistfully back and forth to some of the best sludgy stoner metal you’ll hear for a while.

Maybe we’ll even have streamers.

Photo by Janetmck, via Creative Commons.