Kill Sadie – Experiments in Expectation
(2001 Dim Mak Records)
(2001 Dim Mak Records)
"Emo" is a pretty touchy word for a lot of folks. Legend has it that it was first used at a Fugazi concert, and it went on to represent exactly what Fugazi did - the next evolution of punk rock. Punk rock with more careful musicianship, more light and shade but the same ferocity and the same DIY ethic. Somewhere during the late 1990's Dashboard Confessional, who were a shitty band with horrible music and stupid fans, got tagged as "emo" and it was all downhill from there. Now when someone utters the word "emo", one imagines some tween wearing purple skinny jeans and a Twilight t-shirt (because an obsession with vampire cheesemo isn't exclusive to fat chicks, you know, the only sizes that Twilight shirts come in are XS and 4XL) with a ridiculous haircut listening to Circa Survive. It's fucking shameful.
That aside, there are a handful of albums that I still proudly call emo. 'Experiments in Expectation' is one of them. Kill Sadie was a short-lived yet highly influential band with roots in Minneapolis who ended up in Seattle. As things things often go, they have a pretty concise discography and imploded into several other bands. Most notably, Steve Snere went on to sing in These Arms Are Snakes and Erin Tate ended up in Minus The Bear, both are fantastic bands that need no introduction. It's such widespread influence that makes the album instantly familiar.
'Experiments' is seminal in its use of more experimental (go figure) song structures and noisescapes while not hesitating to venture into more ambient and subtle moments. Contemplative interludes such as "Rebirth Through Adaption" with its seamless segue into "The Place You Live" pace this record quite well. Where most early emo relied more on a direct, visceral, emotional (again, go figure) attack (see also the legendary At the Drive-In), Kill Sadie holds back as much as they force onward. "A Ride in the Centrifuge" communicates a kind of strange, peaceful impatience without any words and only basic instrumentation (read: guitar, bass, drums). I leave the emo tag on this record because its simply too smart to be called punk and too diverse to be called anything-core. The heartfelt, eight minute long album closer "An Antiquated Bluff" carries the album off into space, landing on the other end of the spectrum of feeling from where it started.
Most bands who seem to have called it quits prematurely leave me a little frustrated. I want to know what they could have gone on to do... what directions they would have headed in. (Side note: there are some glaring exceptions. Like U2. I do not know anyone of reasonable taste in music that openly admits liking the last four U2 albums. They are nut-filled pieces of shit.) I don't feel that way about Kill Sadie, and it's not because they weren't a great band. For once, I am satisfied with a single record. I am willing to accept 'Experiments in Expectation' as an anomaly of awesomeness in a genre lost too soon to mainstream bullshit.
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