We Sing the Body Electric

Since By Man (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 4, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Revelation
• ASIN: B000085RRF
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #257,485 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Since By Man have the intensity of Converge, dance-ability of the Swing Kids, melodic sensibility of Milemarker and a vision all their own. 2003 album, the band formed in Milwaukee in 1999. Revelation Records.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff., May 17, 2003

By 

Scott Heisel (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: We Sing the Body Electric (Audio CD)

This CD will rock you.

For about thirty-five minutes straight, this CD will rock you. Not once does Since By Man let up on this, their debut for Revelation Records. After 10 tracks [and one intro], you're let up for air, but just fast enough to press the "Play" button again.

Contained within this disc is some of the most innovative, just plain...hardcore the Midwest has ever cultivated. If I were to make some sloppy comparisons I'd say Since By Man falls somewhere in between the realm of a much heavier Thursday but a not nearly-as-technical Dillinger Escape Plan. What does this mean, exactly? Well, there's no [sissy] singing in their repertoire, but they can definitely bring the hooks to the table to combat their tricky guitar riffs. This CD is almost dancable, in a sense - I find myself convulsing in my chair more and more with each listen.

I'm not a big fan of hardcore music, but I know a winner when I hear one. Since By Man just may be your favorite hardcore album of 2003, if you're willing to trust 5 kids from Milwaukee to punch you in the gut and have you come back and ask for more.

And yeah, you'll be coming back for more.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars the good is the enemy of the...cliche?, February 12, 2003

By 

Michael D. Carey (Milwaukee, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: We Sing the Body Electric (Audio CD)

According to Alternative Press, Milwaukee's Since By Man is one of the 100 bands to keep an eye on in 2003. If "We Sing the Body Electric," SBM's recent Revelation Records release, is suppose to be a music benchmark, as AP would have us believe, then 2003 will be a truly middling year.

Since By Man has existed since 1999, and can be admired for their occasional devotion to underground ideals. Their live shows are covered in sweat, delirious decibels pushing people to dance. Singer Sam Macon cavorts and controls the stage like a young Mick Jagger, but instead of a blues man's howl, a Henry Rollins's growl.

At first, "We Sing the Body Electric" holds true to the promise of the Since By Man live set. The album starts strong with minor chord poetry attempts like a flame traveling down a fuse to quickly exploding into metal riffing and double picking, all on the down stroke. Tempo shifts easily settle in among vocal barked polemics.

For the first four songs or so, each hardcore cliché is brought out just long enough as to excite without boring, like the best sort of guests. When guitarists Justin Kay and Kevin Herwig aren't a tight chugging Marshall wall, they're playing cascading dissonant distortion walls against each other, and it works. Vibrato on two numbers works like a needed surprise, but could become played out if they aren't careful.

Macon's voice has an ever-so-slight twinge of fragility that keeps the songs from falling into the neo-machismo that mires so much hardcore music. Unlike most radio friendly production, the vocals are there in the trenches with the guitarists. The voice another instrument, as it should be.

The drumming done by Jon Kraft is solid and should be saluted for sometimes becoming downright danceable.

In these shining moments it's possible to see faint remembrances of At the Drive-In and Refused instead of their pale imitators that have taken up the hardcore agit-prop mantle, and at whose feet far too many soon-to-be-frustrated guitarists worship (I'm looking at you Sparta, Thursday and any band who spends more on tattoos and hair dye than they do drumsticks and guitar strings).

So far this could be an incredible EP, then you realize there are seven more tracks left and pour a shot of Pepsi in straight edge tribute to the desire to get through this intact.

As Bruce sang "Every thing dies, baby, that's a fact." And so to does "We Sing the Body Electric."

When Since By Man slows down the tempo all of the band's weaknesses are magnified. The guitarists seem content to play the same arpeggio on each song.

The only thing noteworthy about the bass is that you forget Bryan Jerabek is playing except to realize that the parts are either uninspired filler fluff, taking up space, holding things down, but transcending little more than a few bars on the bass clef, or they are buried like Caesar- deep in the mix. The main exception being on "The Enemy" where during a break, thin anemic bass picking causes chills in the less cynical.

The lyrics never grow as tall as leaves of grass, but at their best they're good, catchy phrases meant for fists to pump along too. The trouble is that- as they stretch out over the length of the album- you realize they are often t-shirt slogans dressed as songs, poetry as deep as Rod McKuen's, as thought out as the sophomoric rants of one who thinks Chomsky or Hannity is an expert on politics.

Since By Man's gravest sin on this plastic slab recording is a lack of emotional range. It's always anger, like a brooding cousin who only owns black shirts, and doesn't find life or Donald Barthelme funny.

Their anger is unimpressive.

When it's on, "We Sing the Body Electric" is as earnest as a pit bull. When everything slips, though, the album is as honest as a press release, as impassioned as a press release. The group needs to study the sincerity of subtlety, that bludgeoning hurts more if you pause between hits. Macon must learn to do more that just talk or scream. He must learn range, or how to make a whisper hurt.

Worth a few listens, but unlikely to be remembered in time, "We Sing the Body Electric" is a good album, not a great album. With some work maybe Since By Man can create something lasting.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intense and energetic, May 10, 2003

By 

"leitmotiv" (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Sing the Body Electric (Audio CD)

Since By Man have successfully put together a beautifully intense and energetic record with "We Sing The Body Electric"

Since By Man put together a sound that crosses the intensity and power of bands like Converge, with the speed and energy of a band like the new defunct Orchid. The vocals in this band are actually extremely similar to that of Orchid's.

"We Sing The Body Electric" is a very unique hardcore album, but it's sound shouldn't shun away from any traditional hardcore fans.

"We Sing The Body Electric" is a very powerful and intense album, and I recommend it to any fan of Converge, Orchid, Vaux, Every Time I Die, Blood Brothers, Norma Jean, or The Rise, or anything at all similar.

Since By Man certainly has some extremely special going for them that they hopefully won't lose on any future releases.