Appleseeds
Aside from maybe the home-dubbed cassette tape, no other physical format really captures the spirit of DIY rock music like the split 7-inch. For one thing it’s relatively economical for everyone involved. Bands can share the financial burden, small labels can showcase multiple artists for the same investment and fans too get more bang for their buck. But it’s also collaborative in a way that’s driven largely by creative concerns instead of monetary ones. As such, there are a lot of split 45s floating around, but Go Milk Yourself, the new EP from local independent Dirty Hippy Barn Records stands out, bringing together two of the city’s most inventive punk acts, Appleseeds and Strange Matter, both of whom made a convincing case for picking it up at Sunday night’s release show.
Also part of Circle-A Café’s intimate “Alive at Eight” series, the tiny bar was full but not as awkwardly crowded as it usually gets by the time Strange Matter kicked things off, perhaps because of the rain, perhaps because people were instead gearing up for one of the many other shows happening around Riverwest on a Sunday night. In any case, it was still a solid turnout and the crowd responded well to Strange Matter’s doomy, spastic, deceptively humorous brand of hardcore. The three short songs on their half of Go Milk Yourself are some of the trio’s most impressive yet, tweaking their more experimental tendencies by pinning them to a slightly more accessible structure, but here they also showed off older material like the jerky no wave of “Barbed Wire Wishes.”
Not to be outdone, Appleseeds side of Go Milk Yourself, the third seven-inch on Dirty Hippy Barn since they launched earlier this year, is just as strong, and the band highlighted those tunes tonight, “I Do,” “Sour Grapes” and an updated version of the catchy “Wasted Time” from their 2012 debut. The band has evolved somewhat since that release, letting their noisier side loose while still retaining the original appeal of their caustic, glam-inflected garage punk although, as good as the vinyl sounds, in person is the ideal way to experience Appleseeds, thanks mostly to powerhouse singer Fly Steffens, even if, like Strange Matter, their short set left the crowd wanting more. With no cover, the show, like the split itself, was cost-effective, punchy and a good example of local underground artists joining forces.
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