Customer Reviews

Rusty

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album changed my view of music forever. Before I understood nothing of patience with music, of letting a theme develop, of any song structure that was different from verse-chorus-verse...but the day I made this purchase was a fateful one indeed. Throughout its forty-two minute duration, the band members and producer Bob Weston craft unimagined soundscapes, pull meditative melodies from spare arrangements, assault the senses with aggressiveness unknown to any type of rock music, and create an air of haunting mystery that can only leave the listener addicted. It happened to me, people.

All of the songs stand alone themselves..."Bible Silver Corner" is the plaintive opening instrumental, deceptively introducing a mood that is both comforting and disturbing at the same time..."The Everyday World of Bodies" is Rodan's epic signature tune, with it's army of vocalists weaving together a mysterious story of love, betrayal, life, and death..."Gauge" is, in my opinion, one of the greatest rock songs ever written...the song manages to go everywhere in seven minutes but maintain a cohesiveness and pensive beauty throughout.

However, the thing you notice most on first listen will be the overall unity of the album. Weston aided the band in bringing these songs together as one...the track order coupled with the brilliant use of feedback ties the songs together into one work of art rather than several.

If you are a fan of any type of music with an experimental edge (especially those of an indie vein), you don't know the first of it until you get your hands on this album. Solid yet trippy drumming, fractured yet intricate guitars, pummeling yet melodious bass-playing, and the combined effort of three excellent vocalists make this album one of a kind. Ten stars, baby.

If you've arrived at this CD the same way I did (through this website's "If You Bought This, You'll Like THIS" feature) then there's a good chance you are a fan of Slint. If you've never heard of Slint, I'd recommend buying their "Spiderland" album first, since that would be the center of gravity around which all of these off-shoots revolve.

While "Rusty" by Rodan is a great album, it's not exactly what I was expecting after reading the other reviews here. The first track, "Bible Silver Corner", does recall the ocean of guitar drones and chimes that I would typically relate with Slint and similar bands (such as Mogwai and The For Carnation). But beginning with the second track, it turns into an up-tempo, angular punk buzz while the vocals flip back and forth between a scream and a soft, almost unintelligble spoken word. If you've ever wondered what it would sound like if a punk band decided to make a prog-rock album, well, stop wondering and check out "Rusty".

If I had to compare this album to anything by Slint, I'd say it most closely resembles the heavier moments on Slint's first album, "Tweez". The songs on "Rusty" seem to thrive on harsh contrast by sprinkling a few melodic interludes in between the buzz, but these passages never really take their own direction - instead, they seem more like shortcuts back to the main road. So, since I bought this album expecting "Spiderland" but instead I wound up with an earful of "Tweez", I figured it be nice to post a review here that got a little more specific than the typical "If you like Slint, you'll like Rodan" offerings.

unforgivably, i turned down the opportunity to see Rodan live in order to do something that i can't even remember. only after the band broke up did i come to believe that Rusty is perhaps one of the best indie albums ever. Rodan's only album contains some of the best elements of music from Louisville . . . moody, angular, energetic and melancholic. tara jane o'neil, jason noble, jeff meuller and kevin coultas make up the foursome. each member has since branched off to join other reputable bands such as: June of '44, Rachel's, TJO, the Sonora Pine and Shipping News.

highlights of Rusty include "Toothfairy Retribution Manifesto", "Gauge" and "Bible Silver Corner". i actually like this album better than both of the Slint full-lengths. all of the members of the band are in this really bad movie filmed in Louisville and Chatanooga called "Half-Cocked", which you can order from a nameless indie label. if you get burned-out on this album, Jeff Meuller and Jason Noble reunite along with Kevin Crabtree to form The Shipping News. they are worth checking out.

Often overshadowed in the Louisville pantheon by Slint, Rodan did not opt for slowly brooding songs like that mainstay did on Spiderland. The liquid, nearly baroque opener "Bible Silver Corner" shimmers in instrumental bliss with only a few buzzes foreshadowing the chaos to come. The remaining five tracks are akin to a train rampaging down the tracks, almost losing control by the sheer speed and weight of the beast.

In the midst of all of the sheer energy present here, it's hard to imagine any melody surviving, but even at the most frantic points, there are moments of the deftly orchestrated "Bible Silver Corner." Every track peels away layer after layer of complexity.

The three vocalists scream like they have never been able to speak before. No matter what bands they have gone on to form, this is the one you need to hear.

Note: It will never get an official release, but track down Rodan's Peel Session, which features three songs that are more or less out of print, including Tara Jane O'Neil's finest moment, "Sangre," a ten-minute math-rock workout in "Before the Train," and a throbbing Jeff Mueller rocker ("Big Things, Little Things").

having visited kentucky, i can say that there is nothing incredible about the area, but the music that has come out of the the area in the last ten years has been incredible. this is one of the harder cds that came out of it all, but it is still very well put together. the first track is very slow and beautiful; the last tracks are for the most part relatively loud and incredibly good. although i hate to say it, this cd is almost as well put together as the slint albums, but it brings more energy and strength than do their album's. although this is not as often praised as some other groups in the same genre, it is nonetheless a gem, a loud cd that you will truly enjoy even if slint and tortoise are two of your favorite bands.

No other group working in the post-punk sub-classification of math rock can or could match Rodan's intensity; "Rusty" is by far the most heavily aggressive release in this genre. With the exception of the all-instrumental opening cut, "Bible Silver Corner", there is a ferocity, an almost maniacal edge, to the rest of the tracks (particularly "Shiner", "The Everyday World of Bodies", and "Tooth Fairy Retribution Manifesto") despite the razor-sharp changes in transitional flow typically associated with other bands who work this vein. I once read a review of "Rusty" shortly after its release that compared Rodan's sound to the perfect marriage of Sonic Youth and Helmet, but I don't sense the virtuosity (and the preciousness that often merged together with it) characterizing those bands. Rodan's music is more visceral, is more to be reacted to then to be an object of aesthetic appreciation. Maybe it's the muscular, heavyweight, intricately structured drumwork of Kevin Coultas. Or perhaps it's the contrast between crisp, assured low-key spoken vocal delivery of Jason Noble (teamed occasionally with Tara O'Neil) and the solvent-gargling howls of Jeff Mueller, trading off verses during every song but "Tooth Fairy". Nevertheless, O'Neil's penetrative basslines and Mueller's most heavily-gauged sandpaper-like riffing are what separate Rodan from near-contemporaries Shellac; while Mueller subdivides the fretwork into multiplicative pealing during the quieter interludes within each song, you can sense that eruption is more preferable than cultivating tension. In the end it's what made the dissolution of this band after recording their only release all the more frustrating; together, they were heavy.

by lurching turns both brutal and delicate, rodan take the great dynamics of slint and add their own gorgeous bombast. if you enjoyed any of the early - mid 1990's quiet/LOUD bands (slint, hurl, codeine, etc.) and you somehow missed this jewel, well somehow it's still in print, so buy it now. you'll be glad you did.

The beauty of destiny. The fact that these people were actually in a same band once is like a gift from heaven. They were all so talented, so young, and must have been completely into what they realized thay were capable of. Imagine how they felt when they first discovered they were going to make a record like this. Rusty is an album that's beautiful, violent, smart, noisy, fragile, relentless and reckless. It's the first and the only album from Rodan, and for a group of people with this much talent, I guess it was inevitable to part ways to try something new. ( Be it a solo career, June of 44 or Rachels.) In my heart, this tops Loveless and Nevermaind. Life goes on, but I don't doubt that even a decade later, each former member of Rodan still feels a lot of pride and the sense of achivement when thinking of this record, along with the fond memories of very strong experience. God bless Tara, Jeffly, Jason, Kavin, Touch & Go and Bob.

In the mid '90's, Rodan came and went with little fanfare. This is unfortunate, since Rusty is a powerhouse of a disc that should not be missed. While most tracks are strong, Rodan's standout contribution to the evolution of music is "The Everyday World of Bodies". This eleven minute epic masterpiece delivers a relentless driving force that builds to an astonishing telos. A truly remarkable song unlike anything out there. Serious music lovers should take note.

Comprised of members of June of '44 and Sonora Pine (before they became members of these bands), Rodan released only one album before becoming extinct. There is a definite connection here with the work of Slint, but Rodan might be even better: the guitar interplay is all about tension and relief, and foreshadows the fine work that Jeff Mueller would do in June of '44. Certainly if you are a June of '44 fan this record is for you; but it is also for anybody who is a fan of complex, driven rock.