[Albums] Channels - Waiting For The Next End Of The World

Channels - Waiting For The Next End Of The World
August 2006 | Dischord Records

Released at the end of August, the first full-length record from Channels is the stomping, triumphant, beautiful and blasting follow through to the Open EP that the band released on DeSoto Records (ah, desoto, how i miss the dismemberment plan. *sniff*).

Channels, J. Robbins's new post- Burning Airlines and Jawbox project, seems like the natural progression of his compositional and performance abilities, but the project has a sense of shimmering beauty and lurking pop that you didn't often see in the former bands. His wife Janet Morgan plays bass and handles a good portion of the vocals, her Kim Deal-esque delivery takes tracks like Lucky Lamb and Chivaree into a place that Robbins could never do on his own. Darren Zentek's drumming couldn't be a better match for Robbin's and Morgan's truly strange and adept riffing, dynamic changes, swells, drives, and dives.

This record is intense. So much complex but catchy music for a trio to be cranking out while delivering some really touching lyrics, ranging from the anthem catchy "I love my friends and all my friends are in love" of Chivaree to "This fucking century puts Bombs in my dreams," of the very same song. The lyrics of The New Mandarins (featured recently in a Jersey Beat podcast), which kicks off the record, are a smart and personal indictment of the direction of our culture since the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. The whole record is pre-occupied with the invasion of popular fear into the personal life.

Chivaree originally appeared on Open, and is available for download on the DeSoto site right here. Put that on your ipod and play it for all your friends.

Channels is the inheritor of the DC post punk sound, forging ahead, expanding the sound, adding a hyperactive twang, aaah-aaah vocals, blistering guitar solos and a feminine beauty that just isn't so very present in the music from that scene. It's weird to hear something that almost could almost be called prog-something except for the fact that it doesn't come off as nerdy and mathematically obsessed, more about hitting just that right sound to invoke just that right emotion. Channels delivers their pop with a vicious density and beauty where most post-hardcore-punk groups can only muster up the formula that Green Day patented back in '94.

The recording and production quality of this record is fantastic, and was mostly recorded and mixed by J. Robbins himself (although early recordings of "Lucky Lamb" were done with good ol' Don Zientara).

Definitely worth your $10. Order your copy from Dischord online if it's not in your local store.

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An unrelated aside: a little-known but awesome record store here in New Jersey is in Somerset - Curmudgeon Records. They often pack that place for shows, too. Worth checking out if your in the more central or western Jersey and you need a decent place to hunt down your crushes. Definitely a place where you could find this record if you want to buy local. Tunes in Hoboken comes to mind as far as stores in North Jers.