I was knee-deep in the Jesus Lizard, Slint, and a ton of other stuff when a pal of mine from Record Revolution asked me if I had ever heard Rodan. I hadn't. There wasn't much to hear (only one full record, I think), but once I got my hands on the album, I listened to it over and over and over again.
There are only a handful of bands that have completely caught me off guard upon first listen, and Rodan was definitely one of those. The intro to Rusty is a languid, intertwined string arrangement (played on guitars). It's not really what I expected given the pedigree of the members of the band, but it went on for a few minutes and lulled me into a confused state just as the first wrecking ball hit.
Holy cow.
I remember hearing the Jesus Lizard for the first time, and the first Fugazi song I heard was Waiting Room. Those were both transcendent music moments for me. When Bible Silver Corner ended and that first snare hit initiated the angular, rolling assault of Shiner, I was hooked. Have been since.
Anyhow, in researching them, I found very little outside of Rusty (or the various projects of the members post-Rodan) to further scratch the itch they started. There were, however, the Peel sessions. This is one of my all-time favorite songs for a lot of reasons. It's somewhat symmetrical. It has a certain comfortable feel to it despite the myriad parts and starts and stops. There are no words. It's marvelously long, but never gets boring. It seems like we're all on a musical trip together.
See what you think:
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