Get it at: Amazon
I don’t know if it’s just the Fall in Minneapolis—the schizophrenic back and forth between blue sky/sunny day and oppressive gray, but I’ve been listening to Kerosene 454’s “At Zero” non-stop for days now. Originally released in 1998 on the sadly-defunct Slowdime label, “At Zero” was the State College by way of DC band’s 3rd and final LP.
K454 were together from 1992–1998 and were a workhouse of a band, releasing 3 7″s on Art Monk Construction before dropping their debut LP “Situation at Hand”
In 1996, things changed though. I had gone to see Bluetip in Providence and K454 were opening. Bluetip’s “Dischord No. 101” had just dropped and was amazing so I was making the 45 minute trek from Newport to Providence to see them. But, Kerosene opened and they destroyed. They were tight, noisy, the drums were astounding and they ended the set with a classic one-riff guitar rock jam* (this would turn out to be “Injection” from the brand new ”Came by to Kill Me” target=”_blank”
A year or two later, Kerosene came through Providence with Bluetip again. This time with a new sound, more open, more melodic and simpler. While they still ended the set with “Injection”, they also had another extended one-riff banger. I thought they were bringing early material back into their set but it turned out to be songs from the new album “At Zero”. I think they opened the set with “Anti-Magnet” and the one-riffer was “Pay Attention”. While “Came By…” is the breakthrough record and maybe even a masterpiece, “At Zero” is one of my favorite records of all time. Its like the driving, dense force of all their work reached its apex on “Came By To Kill Me” and now it was time to work out some new ideas. “At Zero” is more rhythmic and repetitive and the guitars now have space in and between them. In general, I suppose its more listenable. “Came By…” is still a post-hardcore kind of record and requires a certain headspace, but I can pop in “At Zero” and it will cheer me up.
Thinking about my Converge post from last week and how they’ve pushed past the dip to stay productive for 17 years, it really makes me wonder what Kerosene could have done if they had stayed together. If you think about the amazing progression of a band like Fugazi over its 20 year life-span or even Unwound’s development from 1991–2001, things get so interesting. Imagine if “At Zero” was only the beginning.
I did just find out that K454’s Erik Denno (guitar/vocals) and Darren Zentek (drums, also of Channels and Glendale) are in the band Report Suspicious Activity (who may or may not still be together) with Vic Bondi (!) and J. Robbins (!). I’ll be checking ’em out tomorrow. Denno and Zentek were also in Oswego who released one record on De Soto.
There are no downloads for “At Zero” on the web at this time , legal or otherwise(besides sketchy Russian .15 per song sites). Built On A Weak Spot has a couple of mp3’s from each LP here.
Download “Came By To Kill Me” (via Panzan). Note: This record is out of print and there are no mp3 stores that stock it. So chill.
* It is the opinion of this blog that to be a legendary rock band a least one one-riff extended jam is required, preferably per album. Some examples: Born Against “Well Fed Fuck”, Hoover “Electrolux”, The Monorchid “Bitch Test”, Drive Like Jehu “O Pencil Sharp”, etc.
