Flush It Friday: Riff Wizard
I know The Butcher’s real name…
As you all know, beloved riff wizard Andy Williams passed away earlier this month. I wish like hell it hadn’t happened. I wish like hell Every Time I Die hadn’t dissolved in such spectacularly messy fashion. But life is full of unfulfilled wishes. What we’re left with, at least thanks to Andy and his former bandmates, is a band’s catalogue and legacy. The Boys from Buffalo released their first EP The Burial Plot Bidding War in 2000, kicking off what would be a near-unimpeachable run for most of the first decade of the century. We’re cuttin’ our baby teeth, folks.
Out of all the metalcore ablums of the early 2000s, none felt as sophisticated and ironic, as artistic and irreverent, as highbrow and lowdown, as Every Time I Die’s debut LP Last Night in Town. It had clean vocals but not what you would call melody. It was mathy and dissonant but always right on time. There’s a whole generation of folks to whom you could say, “Chicagooo” in the right way, and they’d know exactly what you mean. “The Logic of Crocodiles” felt like an inflection point for the whole genre in 2001, a place to stake your claim.
It must have been the Hot Damn! tour when we saw Every Time I Die play in Savannah. During their set, two neo-Nazi skins decided to get involved, only to get their asses mobbed on and thrown out of the venue. While they were being impolitely escorted from the show, the band led the rest of us in a beautiful rendition of “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye.” I’m tempted to share “Ebolarama” for obvious reasons, but “I Been Gone a Long Time” gets the nod for that cowbell and final shit-kicker of a riff.
Goddamn was the band feelings itself on Gutter Phenomenon. I’ve gone through different phases with this album over the last 20 years, but all I can think about this week is how fucking rock and roll the whole thing is. If you want to quibble with the latter half being a little weak, so be it, but everything between “Apocalypse Now and Then” and “The New Black” is the most confident the band sounded in their still young career. It all feels so easy and natural like it ain’t no thing. It sure ain’t Maybelline. You’re just born with it.
This is where my love started wavering. For a lot of folks, The Big Dirty was a stronger effort than Gutter Phenomenon and more in line with the strengths of Hot Damn! In revisiting it after a long time gone, the few songs I remembered are strong and those I had forgotten are even better. Closing tracks “INRIhab,” “Buffalo Gals,” and “Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Battery” have me scratching my head, wondering why I was so quick to kick The Big Dirty out of my big dirty bed in 2007. A little premature, but that’s how it goes.
RIP Andy. In your name we Flush.
Stick‘s TMPin’ while Roldy‘s TTTin’.
Meadow Wyand is back with 4.5 Flaming Toilets for the latest from Dreadnought.
Toilet Radio 644 features Gen X Correspondent Ian interviewing Kai Hansen. Big riffs. Big vocals. Bigger hair! Joe ‘n Jordan are also up to their usual shenanigans. We’ve got it all.
Does the new Krallice have any riffs? Sean Ghoulson will let you know. 4 Flaming Toilets!
There it is! Drop your GBUs in the comments and, if you got ’em, your favourite Every Time I Die song(s). Drag the lake. You’ll find it full of love.
