This is me

New Madrid Faults have been the first band that I’ve truly felt connected with from almost the minute they got together to being an intricate part in reeling them into Ropeadope. I first met John Kimock when I was in college. I always remind him that I first saw him perform at Illick’s Mill with his father, Steve Kimock. However, that’s not to say he doesn’t deserve every inch of merit he receives because he is easily one of the best drummers I’ve ever seen…and at the ripe age of ___ (side note: the other day, John and I had a humorous conversation with an intern at Joe’s Pub where he refused to give her his age, so I won’t either). Also, that’s not to say his bandmates, Matt Mulchany and Matt Juknevic, aren’t as equally talented as he is. John ALWAYS stresses to me the collaborative nature of the group, so I will never try to undercut that aspect.

Sooooo I told John to pick one song that best defines his band and send me the official version on the record, since I have like 10 versions of each song and I’m not sure which is which anymore. He chose “To The West Goodbye” and to be honest, I was crossing my fingers for that one since it’s one of my favorites of theirs.

The song begins like a Drift song (ambient trumpet post-rock) then the guitar and glock pick up and they instantly morph into bizarro-pop, something akin to The Decemberists or Neutral Milk Hotel. About halfway through, they kick it up a notch and almost sound like Calexico rocking out with Dinosaur Jr. (call me stupid all you want, but that’s what I’m hearing). And then come full-circle to The Album Leaf ambient complete with vocal sampling and all sorts of electronic distortion.  And this is all in one song.

All I know is, I have the epic, 7 minute, genre-expansive song on repeat while I’m writing and it’s making this moth in my room go insane, so it must be sick (the music that is)…basically dig ‘em on myspace, facebook, imeem, or not at all (but I’d strongly recommend it).