. . . to Another

An anniversary that we're much more interested in celebrating, or at least generates far more whistful nostalgia, is the tenth anniversary of the first self-titled Storm and Stress album. While we cannot say that the album burst onto the scene in 1997, it nevertheless quickly achieved cult status. Those of us who liked it found it's atonal meanderings remarkably fresh, a dramatic break from the verse-chorus-verse song structure. Blake Butler, of emusic.com, called it a "garbled cacophony of untamed genius" a phrase we whole-heartedly endorse. Elvis Bonaparte recalls eagerly talking up the album to others who had admited to listening to it.

"I was so excited," Bonaparte says, "It was like nothing I'd ever heard. When people would say to me things like, I can't get past that first song [We write threnodies. We write explosions.], I'd eagerly agree, saying 'Yeah, neither can I, it's just so good' and the other person would just stare at me and I'd realize that they were one of the many who just didn't get."

"Back when I was hosting Radio Free Nowhere during CJSW's drive home slot, I remember playing it one day and someone called in and asked if these guys were going to finish tuning up," laughs Sean Marchetto. "Man, I loved that song. I've kicked myself forever for missing them when they were in town. I think they played to twelve people."

"Somebody gave it to me as an example of what rock should be," recalls Bassano del Grappa. "I never really thought of them as a rock band. They were always a form of sonic art to me. Somehow managing to capture that whole New York no wave thing from the early 1980s, but merging it with the Chicago sound that Tortoise was just starting to get a lot of traction from."

Storm and Stress were Ian Williams (guitar) of Don Cabellero, Erich Ehm (bass), and Kevin Shea (drums). Their first album was produced by Steve Albini, and their second, Under Thunder & Flourescent Lights, recorded in 1999, but released in 2000, by Jim O'Rourke. The Touch & Go promo paragraph for the first album captured our fin-de-siecle sentiments exactly, but the band, with such a jarring break from the prevailing musical landscape seemed to offer a way out, however brief.



Bassano del Grappa