Forgotten Album of the Month: Subrosa

Forgotten Album of the Month: Subrosa

About a year ago, I wrote about For Squirrels and “8:02 PM.” Before the album came out, half the band was killed in a van accident. The other half recovered from their injuries, found a new bassist, Andy Lord and toured as For Squirrels for a time and then began work on a new record. Reuniting with For Squirrels producer Nick Launay, the band rechristened themselves Subrosa, Latin for “under the rose” and set about to make an extremely angry record.

When the album, Never Bet the Devil Your Head, was released in the summer of 1997, it was a complete turnaround from the pop sensibilities of Example and was almost completely written in response to the tragedy. Kicking off with “World’s Greatest Lover,” a swirling, loud monster of a song that paves the way for the rest of the record. Guitarist/vocalist Travis Tooke’s throaty, almost Tom Waits-y vocals give the songs a much harsher edge and more of a ‘fuck you’ attitude.

As the album progresses, the mood gets darker and the aggression from the tragedy is brought to the forefront at just about all times. Songs like “Damn The Youth” and “The Life Inside Me Killed This Song” are kind of mellow but very venomous. As the album begins to wind down, everything gets a little weirder with songs like “Madness is Genius By Design” and “Lullaby to the Enemy” which mentions a woman’s vital parts with intensity. The band, drummer Jack Griego and Andy Lord are behind Travis the whole time and never let anything down which helps give the album much more of a powerful focus than most other rock records of the year. The album closes with “Pretend,” which just features Travis singing in a very mournful tone about the loss of his bandmates and friends, while trying to imagine the accident never happened. The final sound on the record is the sound of a door closing, which one can look at as the closing of a second chapter.

The album pretty much failed on arrival but the band persevered, taking Creed on their first national tour. But the more the band played, the less the label tried to promote the record. Upon turning in demos for a third record, the label rejected them and a few months later ended up dropping the band altogether. It later transpired that the label only released the record because contractually, they were obligated to. Regardless of the circumstances, the band kept going for about a year and a half before dissolving around 1999. Travis Tooke ended up leaving the music business for almost a decade before reemerging in 2007 with Artichoke. Although Subrosa never got much attention, the band’s reputation has grown considerably over the years as people discovered the music. So take a listen and discover how fantastic the band really was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slBpEQAEvL0 (Buzzard)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC0M3HrFJjk (The Life Inside Me Killed This Song)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Interview with Too Much Joy

Image
Back in the late 80s, goof-pop was everywhere, thanks to the likes of the Dead Milkmen, early Ween and New York's own Too Much Joy. Songs like "If I Was a Mekon," "Making Fun of Bums," "Take a Lot of Drugs" and the immortal "Clowns." Bands like this did not come around that often and when they did, they usually didn't stick around long. Fortunately for TMJ, their songs and legacy have endured because of their website, http://www.toomuchjoy.com/ and through the work of frontman Tim Quirk, who now works for Rhapsody. The following are two interviews conducted in about 2008 with Mr. Quirk as well as drummer/former NYC cop Tommy Vinton. Tim's Interview: What was it like when you guys got started? Depends what you mean by “it.” The business was radically different – it was a lot more difficult (and expensive) to record quality-sounding material, but since that meant there were fewer other releases to compete with, it was much easier than ...
Read more

The Wondertruck Crashed: The Tale of Mary's Danish and David King

Image
             Mary’s Danish were one of those bands that never made it. They were popular in the L.A. scene in which they were spawned but through a variety of reasons they never hit it big like their friends in Jane’s Addiction or the Red Hot Chili Peppers. What follows is a sad tale of unfortunate errors and mistakes that doomed a really great band to the dustbin of obscurity.              The band formed in the mid-‘80s by a group of friends: singers Julie Ritter and Gretchen Seager, guitarists Matt Colleran and David King and bassist Chris ‘Wag’ Wagner. The band were a little bit of everything including indie rock, alt rock, some surf influences and loads of funk to go around. They blended all of these together in a tasty stew that soon began to attract attention. After working with a series of drummers, Nick Ziegler was drafted in and the band began to attract a heavy fanbase throughout California. The band eventu...
Read more

In Rapture: A Conversation with Chadwick Salls (Seed/Color)

Image
Seed Discography: ling  (Mechanic/Giant, 1994) Color Discography: Are You With Me? (Melisma/Arista, 2001) Following-up with notable musicians I've chatted with previously has become a new favorite thing to do. Up next is Chadwick Salls, best known as the bassist/singer in two different bands, Seed and Color. While neither band lasted very long, caught in the wheels of major label indifference, they managed to carve out their path and establish notable fanbases. Salls has gone on to establish his own career on his own terms and was happy to take a fuller look back with me at both of his bands and where he is now. Pete Crigler: When did you first become interested in music? Chadwick Salls: As far back as I can remember! I was under 5-years-old and I remember reaching up as high as I could to hit the keys because I couldn't get up on the bench. The verse of "It's Only Love" by The Beatles was the first thing I picked out by ear and after teaching for so many years,...
Read more