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| The Party of Helicopters (photo by Shawn Brackbill) |
I was so on the fence with sassy hardcore/emo back in the early aughts. On one hand, I can almost always get on board with evolving old styles, especially when drawing inspiration from dance music and free jazz and no wave. On the other, godDAMN were some of the kids drawn to this scene a bunch of pose hounds. It was super druggy, very fashion driven; both things I wasn't very into.
I'm pretty certain I saw the Party of Helicopters once...maybe twice. Almost definitely at the student union at Goucher, possibly at the Sushi Cafe. Their contemporaries were a "who's that?" of the late 90s indie side of punk rock: bands like the 1985, Harriet the Spy, Racebannon, Three Studies for a Crucification. The finest bands from western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana. Too weird for Polyvinyl / too straight forward for Lengua Armada. Perfectly suited for a fest like MacRock. Just a bunch of dorks dorking it up with dorky music for dorky kids.
All of it adds up to a weird-ass mix for this, their final record. It came out on CD via Atlanta's Velocette Records, home to a Vic Chesnutt record, a couple of Jucifer releases, and not much else. Bifocal Media did the vinyl; they were a much more fitting (and long-lasting) home for a band like this that had a foot in so many worlds. There is, however, something about the way the vocals and music blend to make this stand out for me. Which is why I guess I'm sharing it. That, and I'm certain I paid a buck for it a couple years back. So, you know, it fits with the theme, I suppose.
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