Currently Listening: Minutes

"To the West - we will run"
Meet Minutes - from Kalamazoo!
~
Minutes has a song called "Never National" - and it makes me chuckle since this blog is quite often 87 - 94% Michigan bands... ...(Though, here's a post on a Baltimore band that toured through Detroit, recently)...


Behold the realized glory of grimy alt-rock when its given the spit-shine of tilt-o-whirl hooks and sinewy lyrics.

An otherwise blunt and blistering sensibility (think the lingering echoes of a Fugazi-ish, post-hardcore slug) glistening with fits of tightly wound, intricately wrought riffs that never slow for their fiery double salchow displays (like the vigor of a Mission of Burma's strange blend of pop-rock into the murk of punk) then give it their added exuberance of dueling midwest drawled sing-speak-shout vocals.



Minutes' charm comes from their experience. Each player is aged past their bushy-tailed 20's and has a combined resume of a dozen or so other bands. It gives such gravity to "I was 19, You were 20"'s recounting of youthful shenanigans through wandering, seemingly meaningless nights that wound up so crucial later on ... "...walking, skating and driving...searching for friends...searching for peace..."



When they swiftly incant "and I think I turned out alright" over those focused, yet angry sounding guitars, I can't help but feel both their pasts and present - listening to Wire or Pere Ubu or Black Flag in their youths and now, today, making these tunes (not quite homages, but maybe), with their satirical swipes at "nihilist programs," their rock sensibilities are now melded by their weathered hearts and more worldly minds - (see: "Modern Icons & Thieves").


Listen: