Customer Reviews

End on End

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Imagine a rawer, faster, more desperate Fugazi, and you've got Rites of Spring. That's simplistic, of course, but since RoS included members of Fugazi before there was Fugazi, it's not too far off the mark.

This is a great CD, especially when you're feeling bitter and anxious. The performances are full of the raw, immediate energy that only punk rock can deliver, and the lyrics deal intelligently with themes of alienation, frustration, and dejection - intelligently enough that they have appeal for both angsty teenagers and, well, angsty adults. If you're not familiar with the sound of old-school DC emocore, it's melodic, but not poppy, with surprisingly sophisticated songcraft for punk, but plenty of rough edges for authenticity.

And although others have already pointed this out, I'd like to add my voice to the chorus: THIS is real emo, and it has very little to do with what they call "emo" today. RoS and other DC hardcore bands from back in the day have a far better claim to the term than any of these new-school pretty boys with horn-rimmed glasses and maudlin lyrics about getting dumped by their girlfriends. Will someone please school these young whippersnappers before I have to beat them with my walker?

Forget about "emo." Yeah, I remember when the term first came out, almost fifteen years ago, but the bands that were originally termed "emo" (basically Fugazi, and in retrospect, this band) sound NOTHING like today's emo. PERIOD. So you should erase the word emo from your vocabulary, and go out and buy every Fugazi album along with this one. To me, this is a five star album, but let's be honest; if you give everything five stars, it loses its meaning. I try to reserve 5 stars for something with a widespread appeal, something I can recommend to literally everyone and know that most people will/should like it.

Thankfully, this album will NOT be appreciated by everyone, because then it wouldn't be hardcore. But it IS hardcore, not emo (although there's plenty of emotion, but there is in all good music...).

The songs are intense; the first time I listened to this, I was taken back to my childhood; I hadn't heard these guys in my elementary school days, but the emotion is so real it took me there straight away. This is the pinnacle of punk music: violent but still melodic, lyrics that are angry but still intelligent, thought-provoking, and in some cases, heart-wrenching.

The style isn't for everyone; seriously raw guitar playing, distorted to hell, yelling vocals are going to turn some people off; that's fine. This is not the kind of music you share with everybody. This is the kind of music you listen to and go, "Oh yeah, that's what I'm feeling," and you take joy in the fact that not only are there others who feel the same way, but there's somebody who's made the most kick-butt soundtrack to your teenage woes that it will transcend all time and age barriers. People who don't get this stuff just don't. Their loss.

Take all your dasboard cds, your tbs, your std, your starting line every other cd you want to call "emo." Take these out back and poop all over them. that isnt emo, that isnt emotional, that isnt sadness. Take your sappy little frown over to your nearest record store and buy this Rites of Spring cd put it on your stereo as loud as it can and cry your balls off. you'll never feel sadder, but you'll never feel happier when you realize you no longer have to listen to dashboard to crave your sadness.

seeing as the emo scene is beginning to head above ground, the opinion that rites of spring are the founders of emo-core is growing as well, seeing as the new emo kids are just jumping on the bandwagon, agreeing with the 'wisdom of the elders' so to speak... i was once talked to at length by a girl at a show about how the whole harDCore/dischord scene had shaped the beginnings of a new genre, which would be given the name emo after it shed the title 'DC hardcore', only to find she didn't own the album, and knew very little about what she was talking about... she also knew nothing about Embrace, Fugazi, Minor Threat, Dag Nasty, etc.

i found this a little depressing, because i feel that R.O.S. are the founders of emo and broke down all sorts of boundaries, and from the debris of this destruction rose out some of the best music ever created. but, this is nowadays an opinion everyone holds, whether or not people have ever heard this album...

'end on end' is an album which requires a lot of attention when you first purchase it... it grew on me, and it will continue to grow on you and become more and more intricate with every listen... don't be put off by first impressions. a lot of 'nu-emo' kids (familiar only with Get Up Kids and the Ataris) i know hate this album, and can't see how it is the first ever emo album... unable to understand the emo-core is a breakaway from hardcore and that the first album to tread this new ground will not sound like today's bands.

this album is pure inspiration, how could it not be if it created a whole new genre of music? people need to be more than just aware of the contribution R.O.S. has given to music, so check out this album... it might be a good idea to download some mp3s first, just so you know what you are in for before purchasing this album... i recommend: 'spring', for want of', 'remainder' and 'end on end'.

these guys are from demon city, also known as our nation's capital. the cover of the album is kinda disconcerting, and it reminds me a lot of how the music sounds. that usually means the album is good. last summer i spent some time in the demon city and listened to this album over and over again, and it was pretty perfect. the last four songs sound kinda different from the rest because they're from an ep. i'm not sure that they're any better than the rest of the album, but i might have used to think that. the whole thing is pretty excellent. i wish i had bought the remastered one instead of an old copy of it, but i don't think i could like it much more than i already do so i guess it doesn't matter much. amazon might not like me to say this but the album is available for 8 dollars postpaid from dischord records 3819 bleecher st. nw, washington dc 20007-1802, or at least so says the back of my cd. make sure you listen to it a lot if you get it.

I was your typical teenage US Hardcore fan when this album first came out. Being a HUGE fan (and collector) of anything Dischord put out, I was eager to get my copy. One listen left me more confused than excited. Is this hardcore? Is this the DC sound? I kept listening. Each successive listen revealed more and more brilliance. 20 years later I still listen to this album on a regular basis. It never fails to move me.

On a side note, I am a professor at a university in Colorado and have turned a good number of my so-called emo/punk students on to this album. So far, I've got nothing but positive feedback.

The first time I heard RoS was when I saw them play with Grey Matter at a VERY small club on Connecticut Ave (I can't recall the name of the place). At the time, I was 17 and fully immersed in the DC and NY hardcore scenes. I was into fast, raw, and violent punk, and so for me, RoS had a completely different sound than anything I had ever heard. Despite their different style, I was so intrigued by their music that I bought this CD at their show. Little did I know that it was a ground-breaking album.

20 years later, I can listen to the songs on this album and remember vividly the deep impact that some of them had on my life between 1985-86. "Drink Deep" was a song that had particular meaning to me because I listened to it a lot during a brief, but intense romance while on a European trip in June 1986. The girl broke it off near the end of the trip for fear of becoming too involved with me, and I can remember making her listen to "Drink Deep" in an desperate attempt to get her to apply the message of the song to our relationship. The message to me was live in the moment and don't let chances pass you by. Alas, she dumped me, and for the rest of the summer, I would tearfully listen to "Drink Deep" and the rest of the album when I pined for my lost love.

I was out of the punk scene by 1990, and so I really haven't payed much attention to all of the developments in the music since them. I know of "emo" because of what my son tells me and what he has played for me, but as other reviewers have written, the so-called emo bands of today are nothing compared to RoS. In fact, when I first heard emo, I thought this is ok, but it sucks compared to RoS. I also thought, I wonder if this band has listened to RoS? So you seem, for me, RoS is THE standard you can compare other emo bands to.

I plan on buying this CD for my son so he'll know where emo came from, and how it should sound.

Rites of Spring burned the candle at both ends and played only a handful of shows (12?), almost all in DC, during their brief existence. The record/cd does not do justice to the power of the live shows, most of which were amazing. It's also a very personal/local record that people who weren't in DC at the time--'83 to '85--aren't likely to warm up to. This insularity reflects the fact that music scenes at the time were a lot more indigenous and homegrown--no internet, scant media attention outside of fanzines. All the reviewers mentioning the "emo" tag miss the point, since it meant absolutely nothing to the band or the cult-like fans (yes, I was one of them).

I still love the record and the remastering has definitely brought out some previously buried intensity. "End on End" was way ahead of its time--a pioneering piece of noise-rock that many have imitated yet never surpassed. And the lyrics are quite good, especially considering they were written by a teenager, albeit a precocious one. Not many kids have pulled off a record this great.

i haven't listened to rock music much since 1994, so i am not familiar with what anyone means by "emo", but we used to call embrace and ROS "emo" because they sang about their inner emotions rather than more typical hardcore topics like beating up people and hating the government and so on. i heard a friend use this term derisively to describe wimpy pop punk, so i guess that's what it means. i think it's best to ignore these sorts of labels, as one person's emo is another person's pop.

this band influenced everyone who lived in DC because the sound was so raw and furious. rather than play harder and faster, RoS, like other Revolution Summer bands, were seeking to have an impact on their audience while discouraging what had become a very tired hardcore scene from ruining the fun. the nihlistic violence of hardcore had reached a point in DC where a change was needed, and one way to change it was to change the music so that the violent types would stop coming to shows. it worked like a charm.

when i first heard this album, it was 1989, 3 years after the album had come out and well into Fugazi's complete take-over of my life. obviously i bought this album because it was Guy's band before Fugazi. the raw explosive energy with catchy hooks and original song-writing style continues to amaze me. but of course i heard it in 9th grade. it's possible that this album is one of those "had to be there" moments, but i don't really believe that. this album, along with soulside's hot bodigram were probably the 2 most influential albums other than Fugazi's output on anyone who was active in the late 80s pre Nirvana d.c. scene. when d.c. space closed, it was the beginning of the end, and when jawbox and shudder to think signed to majors, the scene completely died. as far as i know, it's never been the same since. the commericialization and commodoification ruined this music, as it had ruined everything before it. but this created a space for new interesting things to happen, i hope. i know it got me into DJ'ing.

the photos in the album were taken at food for thought, a vegetarian restaurant owned by the drummer of grey matter's dad. shows used to happen there on off-hours.

"End on End", in my opinion, is better e'en than any Fugazi record, and that is saying a hell of a lot.