Friday, April 26, 2013

Wound Up-s/t 7" (2004)

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Wound Up was a short-lived Chicago hardcore band that played a handful of shows and recorded this 7” and an LP before disbanding in 2004. I’m guessing that virtually no one outside of the Chicago and Midwest hardcore scene remembers them, but for awhile there they were the toast of the town-or at least among us ~30 idiots who crowed into the DePaul Cheesgrater (locals only!) on Friday nights to see dumb hardcore shows. This may have had more to do with the personnel-the band was composed of members of other CHC bands whose names I can’t remember-but this 7” stands the test of time, for what it is.

Is it stupid? Yes. Crude? Of course. Retrogressive and atavistic? No shit. These qualities make the record so great. Jerky guitars that just barely hold together the general pattern sketched by the rhythm section; a singer that sounds like an emasculated Oscar the Grouch trying to sound like Springa; nonexistent production values: all of this in three songs, none of which last longer than a minute-forty. My favorite is “Fuck Fashion” because it’s so dumb. Back in the day-goin’ on ten years, now, in fact-everyone likened these guys to a non-racist Skrewdriver. I’ve never heard that bunch of fascist fucks, but this is crude, stupid, and fundamentally macho. Looking back, I don’t know why I was so enamoured of this band, but I guess it was one of those dumb “youhaddabetheah” things. Nevertheless, if you like American hardcore, you’ll like this.  It’s what Hoax might sound like if that band wasn’t so fucking self-conscious and stylized. 

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