Re-Enact the Crime

Unwound
The Future of What

At least they didn't misspell their own name on the spine of this disc.
After a few days off for bizness and general laziness, I'm back with more fun.

Unwound always had, to me at least, a reputation of being a difficult band. Perhaps this stemmed from them being oddly miscast from the start. The story goes like this: Sonic Youth comes along, does their thing; Fugazi comes next, are misinterpreted as "new Sonic Youth" before music critics get a clue; Unwound shows up on scene, are first called "new Sonic Youth", then, as they release more albums, are called perfect mashup of Fugazi and Sonic Youth; Sonic Youth comparisons go away when Blonde Redhead start releasing discs. Being miscast from the start, the band, which apparently was never really into the whole idea of being accessible, became notoriously prickly. My closest thing to an anecdote I can offer is this- Hit It Or Quit It, one of the great 'zines of the Indie Revolution (such as it was), wanted to interview the band. Unwound agreed to answer questions by fax, and did so exclusively with non-sequitors and crude (but not rude) drawings. Poor Jessica Hopper could not get a straight answer. This is as accessible as they got. As much as any band ever, Unwound just wanted their music to speak for itself.

All of which begs the question-- why? Sure, they eventually grew into releasing great albums (Leaves Turn... and Repetition come to mind), but early releases were hit and miss. This track qualifies as a miss. Hell, most of The Future of What is so bland, it could be unassuming background music at the punk rock Gap. It could be my fault as a listener, of course. This was never an album that got much play. But, in my defense, when you collect music, it's hard to give something initially bland a second try. You could interpret this project as a series of second chances. As such, this song has failed.