I Am the Day of Current Taste

Roadside Monument | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 5, 2008)
• Original Release Date: September 8, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Tooth & Nail Records
• ASIN: B00000AE2A
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #325,937 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

I Am the Day of Current Taste

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly stunning and fitting last work for a ledgendary band, December 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: I Am the Day of Current Taste (Audio CD)

Roadside's third (and final, with their breakup this summer) full length provides the listener with everything they've come to expect from Roadside; mind-boggling guitar work, exquisite drumming, and the full vocal range from whispers to violent screams. The feel is less coherent than 8 hours, less like a movie soundtrack, and on occasion, the songs sound more like orchestrated jams sessions than the wonderfully put together peices of music in 8 hours, but oh, what jams they are! My favorite, "Cops are My Best Customers" is a seven minute rocker that ends in some of the best grooves I've ever heard, period. "I Am the Day of Current Taste," the title track is prime roadside. "Car vs. Semi, Semi Wins Every Time" is a wonderfully slow and expressive song. I am the day of Current Taste is an epic last album by an epic band, if you don't own it, buy it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fitting end., April 8, 2006

By 

Zachary W. Snow "zws" (Agoura Hills, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Am the Day of Current Taste (Audio CD)

The question has been asked and re-asked: Why do so many bands make great albums and then break up? Roadside Monument has followed this course with "I Am the Day of Current Taste," arguably their most cohesive statement to date. This does not necessarily mean it is their best (that honor goes to "Eight Hours Away From Being a Man," a landmark in independent recording). But it is a tremendous album and a fitting goodbye from a band who came and went so quickly and jaggedly that one almost feels like they were gone before they arrived.

Perhaps feeling that their swan song was imminent, the Roadside guys have packed this album to the brim with dynamics, lyrical intensity, and a touch more polish than previous albums, usually for the best. The song titles are nearly all over-the-top in their grandeur (probably in a tongue-in-cheek fashion--witness "Car Vs. Semi, Semi Wins Every Time" or "Taxiriding as an Artform").

While nothing here is as immediately striking as "Sperm Ridden Burden," "Kansas City," or "Iowa Backroads" from the previous album, these songs work their magic slowly (quite slowly: the average song is a shade over 6 minutes.) That's not to say these are boring songs. Quite the opposite: there is a pulsing, burbling, kinetic kind of passion on this album that is difficult to explain. The screams are few and far between; the delicate passages are longer than ever; a saxophone honks tauntingly in the stunning "Cops Are My Best Customers." It's an altogether different beast with unquestionably familiar passages. The aforementioned "Car Vs. Semi" ends the disc with a subdued, rolling jollity that would seem right at home on most early emo CDs. Strange that the song details a car crash in slow motion. "Egos the Size of Cathedrals" takes a minute or two to get off the ground, but once it does, that familiar, jurassic, bass-and-drums passage rumbles on. "This City Is Ruthless and So Are You" is the unquestionable champ here, though. "My hands could kill if given the chance" Ford whispers before the song breaks out into a shocking and eye-opening punk section. From there, it morphs into a swinging waltz that wouldn't be out of place on a Smashing Pumpkins b-sides collection, before deconstructing into a slugfest of screams and feedback. Simply wonderful.

Not all these eight songs reach these heights. It's hard not to wish for something as lushly goregous as "Apartment Over the Peninsula" or skinned-to-the-bone as "My Hands Are the Thermometers." But these songs most closely echo "Compressor District" from "Eight Hours..." in all its glory (and length). Jonathan Ford went on record saying that "Compressor District" was always one of his favorites, and the obsession with complexity and vision shows here. These songs are as intricate as Victorian lace, with more time shifts than a clock shop (again, check out "Cops Are My Best Customers." You'll need another set of hands to count the time signature changes.) This record is simply stunning, and it grows more so with time.

Swan songs rarely achieve this level of flightiness and groundedness at the same time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "I am the Day of Current Taste" by Roadside Monument, December 29, 1999

By 

Mike Newmark (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am the Day of Current Taste (Audio CD)

The third album from the indie-rock group Roadside Monument has arrived. The first two albums, "Beside this Brief Hexagonal" and "Eight Hours away from being a man" have only introduced what was to come on "I am the day of current taste". By looking at these album titles, and the group name itself, one can easily determine that Roadside Monument is a strange group. Some could say that Roadside Monument is different. But this style of music that is, in fact, different from the mainstream rock, is a great breakthrough for indie standards. Roadside Monument has been known to make nice guitar harmonies, creative but not boastful drums, and a finish that leaves almost everyone that listens to it very satisfied. Roadside Monument's third album, "I am the day of current taste", demonstrates these fundementals well. Tracks like "I am the day..." and "Egos the Size of Cathedrals" show how Roadside monument can make heavy metal patterns and be able to cool down at any given time, and still make it sound smooth. Tracks like "OJ Simpson House Auction" and "Taxiriding as an artform" give off a mellower, more pop-like feel. And "Cops are my best customers" puts all this together, and is, in my opinion, the best track on the album. The one catch about Roadside Monument is: You need to listen to the whole song, because no song on "I am the day..." stays at the same tempo or quite the same melody as it was earlier in the song. Some people might listen to the first part of the song, say "I hate this song" and skip to the next track. But I did this sort of thing at first, and I can tell you that this was a big mistake. Please go pick up "I am the day...", and if you already have, pick up their previous album "Eight Hours away from being a man", which is also a good album with mostly the same fundementals. If you like the material produced by Roadside Monument, spread the word about them to others. Not too many people know this great group, so pass the word on!