It came to my attention early in the morning today that the New York band Drunkdriver has broken up. While I myself was shocked and surprised by this piece of information, my associate Der Diggler was even more devastated. The article below is Der's Drunkdriver obituary.
-Tim
Another day, another band killed by the constantly churning rumor-mill allegedly invented by one Al Gore, also know as the internet or internets if you are so daring to be that baller. Unfortunately this time, the internet gods have chosen Drunkdriver as their fodder in the constantly ongoing war between good and evil (music that is). However, I digress. I am not here to bitch and moan about the factors that have recently brought the band to its demise, nor am I here to provide some sort of review for the band's entire discography. I am simply writing this to pay my brief homage to one of the few noisy punk bands that got “it”.
The first time I heard Drunkdriver I will admit I was not impressed. I felt as if they were just trying to rehash the sound that Steve Albini created with Big Black and perfected with Rapeman. After giving it a few more spins on the turntable it hit me. I was that guy! I was the guy who thought he was allowed to trash a band because the band shared similarities to bands that had a relatively large status in the music world, and Drunkdriver just so happened to be the victim of my narrow-minded pretentiousness in this situation. I had built an obsession that I could not kick to save my life. Yes, I probably would have sucked a dick or two, or seven to be a band that could pull off a mind fuck of that magnitude.
However as impeccable as Drunkdriver's records are, what comes out of that band live is something usually reserved for teenage boys walking down the hallways of their high school with a tech 9 laying waste to everyone and everything in sight. Their live performance puts to rest any doubt at all about the band's lack of a bass player the instant the first chord is struck. The sound of the Les Paul combined with a small army of pedals and two separate amps makes for what is hands down the most dynamically incredible sound one could ever possibly hear come out of sour speakers housed inside a box. As far as drumming goes I am almost positive that Jeremy could give a man wearing a baseball helmet a concussion with simply a drumstick. Vocals? Who cares? I am so scared of Mike's onstage personality that my ears actually shut down as if out of fear that if I were to hear one syllable of lyrics my brain would be so overwhelmed that I would go into sensory overload and die.(From AIDS naturally. I know, how 1980's of me)
Back into the present as I step out of my hot tub time machine and back into a world where Drunkdriver is defunct and never to been seen on stage again. I now stand here at my desk(yes I am required to stand at work) asking god, “Wasn't Alex Chilton enough? Thanks for taking care of that Reatard harlequin, but why Drunkdriver?” This has happened to me numerous times before with bands such as The Feelers, Carbonas, and The Catholic Boys, Drunkdriver has proven to be too good for any sort of worldly existence beyond shiny 180 gram vinyl. 2010: A Music Tragedy.
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