Song of the Day: "Uncle Phil"

No time for blogging this week, here's another song. Find them all compiled HERE.

"Uncle Phil"

Long Knife

from Curb Stomp Earth

2022

I don't know if my admiration of hardcore music will ever turn into sincere participation in the community, but albums like Curb Stomp Earth make me think there is hope for me yet.

I am still an outsider looking in, don't get me wrong. I am completely unqualified to say why this new album from Long Knife is a good one, or why it has connected with me when so many hardcore albums before it have failed to do so. I saw it described online as an album with "classic rock riffs." My thought process was that maybe this meant it was going to sound like Black Sabbath, a band that I like listening to, and Black Sabbath being the closest approximation to hardcore music I could think of out of all music one could reasonably call "classic rock."

Yeah, I guess there's some of that. I don't know. I'm still looking for clues. Long Knife's Bandcamp says that they have a sound akin to "early-'80s American hardcore." I could fathom what hardcore music sounds like, but what distinguishes this from, say, early-'90s hardcore, or early-'80s British hardcore, I would have literally not a fucking iota of a thought about it.

Still, that's a clue. I could go on RateYourMusic and find a list of "early-'80s American hardcore" and make my way through that and see if I find any similar sounds or themes, especially in a way that makes me like those albums the same way I like Curb Stomp Earth. I probably will do that when time allows. Time does not allow currently. So I'm left with Long Knife, and the wondering why.

Or maybe Long Knife does some extra stuff that their peers don't, stuff that makes me like them and not others. The vocals are raw and gruff and loud, but I can understand pretty clearly what the guy is singing, which is a plus (if only so I can pick up on some of the lyrical themes). Would other vocalists make me not like Long Knife as much? Probably.

On "Uncle Phil," there's a saxophone. I don't know how prevalent saxophones are in the hardcore community. I can't imagine all that much. It's not like Long Knife centers their personality around the saxophone, because that would be lame. It's just on one song, and even then the sax is just supporting player, next to the already overwhelming guitars. But still, pretty interesting, no? Is Long Knife taking risks where others don't? Do I appreciate that even if I can't name those risks in any knowledgeable way?

These are the clues I could come up with. One day I will find the answer. Until then, it's totally cool to just sit with Curb Stomp Earth and turn up the volume. You don't really need to know anything to appreciate something.