The Crownhate Ruin

June 27 - July 4, 1 9 9 6
[Off the Record]

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*** The Crownhate Ruin

UNTIL THE EAGLE GRINS

(Dischord)

Stark, grainy guitar distortion, sharp, angular rhythms, strangled vocals, and impressionistic, personal-is-political lyrics -- those are the ingredients that set Dischord-style punk rock apart from the buzzsaw pop of the West Coast in the '90s. They're also the aesthetic fundamentals that buttress the lacerating assault of the Crownhate Ruin, a DC-based trio who've been releasing promising seven-inch singles for the past year and a half.

This is the kind of music that demands crisp, clear production values -- something the singles didn't offer. You really want to feel the muscular, syncopated bass/snare/kick-drum rhythms backing up the snarled sentiments of a line like "Blues are what he wears/Not what he feels" in the explosive "Late Arriving Rock Dudes." There's nothing terribly fancy about the way Until the Eagle Grins was recorded. But producer Geoff Turner (a Dischord vet, formerly of Gray Matter) does harness the bristling, tightly wound interaction of Joseph McRedmond's guitar, Frederick Erskine's bass, and Vin Novara's drums. And that's what playing Fugazi-style is all about.

-- Matt Ashare

(The Crownhate Ruin headline a WMBR Late Risers Club show with the Vehicle Birth, Tugboat Annie, Transmegetti, and Dagobah tonight, June 27, at the Middle East.)