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To Make the Messthetics, Mix a Reunion With One Virtuosic Newcomer To Make the Messthetics, Mix a Reunion With One Virtuosic Newcomer
(8 days later)
Joe Lally and Brendan Canty hadn’t performed together in 15 years — the exact amount of time they’d spent as the bassist and drummer in Fugazi, one of punk rock’s most influential bands of the 1980s and ’90s — when they played their first gig as the Messthetics last May at a tiny bar in suburban Washington, D.C.Joe Lally and Brendan Canty hadn’t performed together in 15 years — the exact amount of time they’d spent as the bassist and drummer in Fugazi, one of punk rock’s most influential bands of the 1980s and ’90s — when they played their first gig as the Messthetics last May at a tiny bar in suburban Washington, D.C.
What pulled them back together was Anthony Pirog, a young electric guitarist from the Washington area, who had been listening to Fugazi since childhood. In the past few years he has accrued a mystique in various pockets of the city’s music world — jazz, indie rock, the media-mixing avant-garde — but remains little-known outside Washington. Maybe the Messthetics’ new album is the sound of that changing.What pulled them back together was Anthony Pirog, a young electric guitarist from the Washington area, who had been listening to Fugazi since childhood. In the past few years he has accrued a mystique in various pockets of the city’s music world — jazz, indie rock, the media-mixing avant-garde — but remains little-known outside Washington. Maybe the Messthetics’ new album is the sound of that changing.
The self-titled release, a compendium of experimental rock that runs from hazy to hard-charging, is due out Friday on Dischord Records. The storied, Washington-based label put out all of Fugazi’s albums, and is still run by that band’s onetime frontman, Ian MacKaye.The self-titled release, a compendium of experimental rock that runs from hazy to hard-charging, is due out Friday on Dischord Records. The storied, Washington-based label put out all of Fugazi’s albums, and is still run by that band’s onetime frontman, Ian MacKaye.
Fugazi marked a turning point in the city’s musical history, broadening Washington’s seminal hard-core sound into a more openhanded aesthetic. The Lally-Canty rhythm section offered a syncopated, lustily grooving backbone in contrast to the speed and thrash of punk up to that point. As a child, Mr. Pirog gobbled up their influence, but mixed it with an appetite for instrumental music. Fugazi marked a turning point in the city’s musical history, broadening Washington’s seminal hardcore sound into a more openhanded aesthetic. The Lally-Canty rhythm section offered a syncopated, lustily grooving backbone in contrast to the speed and thrash of punk up to that point. As a child, Mr. Pirog gobbled up their influence, but mixed it with an appetite for instrumental music.
His own sound suggests a remarkable distillation of about 60 years of electric guitar history. On his debut solo album, “Palo Colorado Dream,” released in 2014, his nearest antecedent is Nels Cline — the downtown New York guitarist known for his palette of ghostly effects — but you’ll also quickly find the warble of Bill Frisell; Sonny Sharrock’s searing swarm; the noisy clatter of Glenn Branca.His own sound suggests a remarkable distillation of about 60 years of electric guitar history. On his debut solo album, “Palo Colorado Dream,” released in 2014, his nearest antecedent is Nels Cline — the downtown New York guitarist known for his palette of ghostly effects — but you’ll also quickly find the warble of Bill Frisell; Sonny Sharrock’s searing swarm; the noisy clatter of Glenn Branca.
Mr. Canty, 52, started noticing Mr. Pirog, now 38, around town a few years ago, and inspiration began to flow upstream, back across the generations. “He was playing really wildly different things in every situation, so I couldn’t quite understand who he was as a guitar player,” Mr. Canty said. But the disorientation converted swiftly into fascination. “I was attracted to that.”Mr. Canty, 52, started noticing Mr. Pirog, now 38, around town a few years ago, and inspiration began to flow upstream, back across the generations. “He was playing really wildly different things in every situation, so I couldn’t quite understand who he was as a guitar player,” Mr. Canty said. But the disorientation converted swiftly into fascination. “I was attracted to that.”
Mr. Lally, 54, had recently moved back to Washington from Italy, and the old confreres were looking to form a group. Mr. Canty suggested they give Mr. Pirog a shot; the trio began jamming at Mr. Canty’s rehearsal space, and clicked immediately. The original idea was to play music Mr. Lally had written, but soon the elder musicians found themselves turning to Mr. Pirog for creative fuel. “Seeing the kind of guitar player Anthony was didn’t really make me want to play my music,” Mr. Lally said of their first jam session, in fall 2016.Mr. Lally, 54, had recently moved back to Washington from Italy, and the old confreres were looking to form a group. Mr. Canty suggested they give Mr. Pirog a shot; the trio began jamming at Mr. Canty’s rehearsal space, and clicked immediately. The original idea was to play music Mr. Lally had written, but soon the elder musicians found themselves turning to Mr. Pirog for creative fuel. “Seeing the kind of guitar player Anthony was didn’t really make me want to play my music,” Mr. Lally said of their first jam session, in fall 2016.
Mr. Pirog began bringing in tangled melodies and odd-metered patterns, and flinging them at the band at high speeds. “It’s funny because Anthony was asking things of us that Fugazi asked of us, honestly,” Mr. Canty said. “It feels like catching baseballs in a batting cage.”Mr. Pirog began bringing in tangled melodies and odd-metered patterns, and flinging them at the band at high speeds. “It’s funny because Anthony was asking things of us that Fugazi asked of us, honestly,” Mr. Canty said. “It feels like catching baseballs in a batting cage.”
The record maintains the raw vibe of those early sessions: It was captured on basic equipment, the guitar and bass recorded straight from their amps, in Mr. Canty’s rehearsal space above a Washington club.The record maintains the raw vibe of those early sessions: It was captured on basic equipment, the guitar and bass recorded straight from their amps, in Mr. Canty’s rehearsal space above a Washington club.
Fugazi was never a band about virtuosity, exactly, but it wasn’t opposed to the principle. Started in 1986, the quartet flew a flag of conviction in an insouciant era: First-generation indie rock was on the up, with bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth proposing abstention as rebellion. But Fugazi went for something direct and throttling; it played around with Jamaican dub, the loose-limbed punk coming from California, and drops of minimalism, arriving at a dark, stony, hard-bitten sound. Unlike past iterations of punk, the currency was its heft, not its speed.Fugazi was never a band about virtuosity, exactly, but it wasn’t opposed to the principle. Started in 1986, the quartet flew a flag of conviction in an insouciant era: First-generation indie rock was on the up, with bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth proposing abstention as rebellion. But Fugazi went for something direct and throttling; it played around with Jamaican dub, the loose-limbed punk coming from California, and drops of minimalism, arriving at a dark, stony, hard-bitten sound. Unlike past iterations of punk, the currency was its heft, not its speed.
The same could be said of “The Messthetics,” though Mr. Pirog’s playing here introduces something else. It can feel both misty and assertive, partly because of the way his effects pedals create something hot and threatening, as if he’s immolating his own notes as soon as they arrive. The new album begins with “Mythomania,” centered on a classic, low-boil bass line from Mr. Lally, cutting and quaking between two notes. Mr. Pirog plays snarled, overlapping guitar lines that seem to be shining through warped glass. Sometimes, he uses a pedal to play back his lines in reverse.The same could be said of “The Messthetics,” though Mr. Pirog’s playing here introduces something else. It can feel both misty and assertive, partly because of the way his effects pedals create something hot and threatening, as if he’s immolating his own notes as soon as they arrive. The new album begins with “Mythomania,” centered on a classic, low-boil bass line from Mr. Lally, cutting and quaking between two notes. Mr. Pirog plays snarled, overlapping guitar lines that seem to be shining through warped glass. Sometimes, he uses a pedal to play back his lines in reverse.
The track never rises into guitar heroics; there’s a lot of heady downtime, the groove getting thicker, pulling you toward a foreboding stupor. Mr. Pirog offers a short guitar solo at the end, some unlikely mixture of John McLaughlin’s Carnatic jazz fusion and Dick Dale’s surf music, heightening the suspense but forgoing any big payoff.The track never rises into guitar heroics; there’s a lot of heady downtime, the groove getting thicker, pulling you toward a foreboding stupor. Mr. Pirog offers a short guitar solo at the end, some unlikely mixture of John McLaughlin’s Carnatic jazz fusion and Dick Dale’s surf music, heightening the suspense but forgoing any big payoff.
Later on the album, after a couple of fast, mathy burners, Mr. Pirog drops things down for “Your Own World” and “The Inner Ocean.” Both are slow and open-ended, their irresolution suggesting a cinematic expanse.Later on the album, after a couple of fast, mathy burners, Mr. Pirog drops things down for “Your Own World” and “The Inner Ocean.” Both are slow and open-ended, their irresolution suggesting a cinematic expanse.
Whether speeding and distorted or slow and ethereal, the Messthetics have a remarkable cohesion. And they see this as more than an intergenerational experiment; the band is already writing tunes for a second album.Whether speeding and distorted or slow and ethereal, the Messthetics have a remarkable cohesion. And they see this as more than an intergenerational experiment; the band is already writing tunes for a second album.
“It’s exciting to me because I know I can play with a certain intensity every night, and not second guess it or worry whether people will come with me,” Mr. Pirog said. In a career that’s quickly picking up steam, “I want this to be the priority.”“It’s exciting to me because I know I can play with a certain intensity every night, and not second guess it or worry whether people will come with me,” Mr. Pirog said. In a career that’s quickly picking up steam, “I want this to be the priority.”