I'm Sorry but I Can't Sit Still: Antioch Arrow
Posted by: marisa | From: July 19, 2004
Sincerest apologies to our latest regular contributor, Miss Marissa Meltzer, for the tardiness of this post. Due to technical difficulties, and my own gross negligence, our sister in arms makes her regular debut in a less than totally awesome form, an I apologize for that. So, without further ado:
I like to tell people that the most punk rock thing I've ever done happened at age sixteen, when I skipped my junior prom to go to a show at Gilman Street. This story isn't a lie--it was the night of my junior prom and I did instead go see bands play--but it wasn't as if I was leaving some tuxedoed date at my doorstep, corsage in hand. But date or no date, what kind of band lures a hot-blooded American girl away from her prom? Antioch Arrow, perhaps the greatest band of all time.
Antioch Arrow were five cute boys (Aaron Montaigne, Mac Mann, Ron Anarchy, Jeff Winterberg, Andy Ward) from San Diego, which was a pretty prolific place for music in the mid-90s. Their albums were released by Gravity Records, who also put out records by Angel Hair, Clikatat Ikatowi, and Heroin. Gravity was the sort of record label that encouraged slavish devotion in some ("some" meaning "me") and utter indifference to many. The band's music has been described as an "overwhelming art explosion of noisy poems sprayed in your face in one minute bursts" and "like someone emptying cans of Mace in your eyes." Both of these descriptions are apt enough, but I will add this: Antioch Arrow sounded the way it felt to be a teenager.
My problem here is that I really want you to love Antioch Arrow the way I do. I want you to get beyond the dyed black hair and white belts (to their credit, though, that was a pretty hot look in 1994). It's difficult to listen to Antioch Arrow for the first time as a wizened resident of the 21st century. So, let's pretend we are endlessly bored teenage girls from suburban California. One day were sorting through the mail and a friend from LA has made us a mix tape and on it is the song "Conspiring the Go-Go". It's awesome. Were in.
"Conspiring the Go-Go" is so good I cannot even recall anything else on the mix tape. The song, with the repeated screaming of "I'm sorry but I can't sit still" (at least, I think that's what they're saying) sounds like the music version of ADHD and sort of feels like being hit in the stomach repeatedly with a dodgeball, but in a good way. Their first two albums, The Lady is a Cat and In Love with Jetts, are short but unstoppable, each song clocking in at around 50 seconds and featuring more erratic drumming and more spastic singing. "Angels Lawn" is a memorable song for many reasons, only one of which being the word "virginity" dragged out to seven syllables. Whats not to like?
And then their third (and last) album, Gems of Masochism, dropped. I bought it, but immediately knew something was amiss. The cover featured the band members looking vaguely goth. The song titles ("Gotta Love the Lights", "Introducing Elizabeth") seemed all wrong. And listening to it confirmed all my suspicions: the music was dark, slow, piano-driven, and claustrophobic. There were songs about mascara. I may have cried.
It's ironic because their first two albums do sound a bit dated and--dare I say--emo, though my devotion doesn't waver. And Gems of Masochism, so reviled by me and my friends, was actually re-released to universally complimentary reviews earlier this year. For me, they'll always be the band that made me ditch my prom and then broke my heart a year later. Sounds like the Greatest Band of All Time. MARISSA MELTZER.
Yes. Antioch Arrow was and always will be the Greatest Band of All Time. I actually liked Gems of Masochism when it came out...although it was a huge shock--and definitely was NOT the Arrow of old. At least there was Clikitat...
Posted by: Maxwell at September 25, 2004 1:38 PM
Whats wrong with black hair, and white belts?-Just kidding
Posted by: Aaron Montaigne at September 12, 2005 11:46 AM
i think that I made that tape for you marissa...
it was either james or I, but I think it was me.
Posted by: Marc Fischer at September 12, 2005 11:43 PM
Whoa, Gems made you cry? I suppose I can understand some initial disappointment since it was such a departure from their earlier work, but it was/is such a great album -- probably their best work. I remember being made fun by the hardcore guys at the record store for buying it when it came out. Though, after some time they came to respect it and their work.
I'm always happy to meet or read the words of others who felt the same way. Now I must go dust of my records and give them a spin.
Posted by: jason at September 17, 2005 11:10 PM
i was at the show where that picture was taken--Columbia, SC "Senseless Beauty Cafe"
AA was fucking awesome.
Posted by: brent van daley at September 23, 2005 11:37 AM
Antioch Arrow defineitely does something really special for me. It's shotgun marriage of artsy tangents and (or is it as?) ADD spazz-core, while not for everyone, is for the people who dig it something so specificially resonant (viscerally, intellectually, and emotionally all at once) that it's sometimes hard for me to understand not liking it. I don't agree that it's like being maced, it's too smart, too pretty, too musical, and too engaging for that comparison. For all the off-time pummeling, AA had genuinely affecting moments (I still get giddy when the organ kicks in on "Space Age" or the poppy guitar line shows up in the closing section of "Fixed Orbit."). $ven the aggressive parts, for that matter, had a musicality and a tunefulness to them that put the band on a pedestal that most emo/core/spazz bands can't touch. In short, if your down for that galvanizing sense of danger/ throttling amazement that rock music (ideally) promises, you need "In Love With Jets/ The Lady is Cat"
Posted by: Sam at September 24, 2005 12:43 PM
this chicks lame if she doesnt like gems of masochism. thats how bands stay alive. changing it up. open up. dont be a square. that albums beautiful as well and the ones before it. this chick is embarrassing
Posted by: cari at December 18, 2005 3:18 PM
@cari: Girls/Women are not chicks! And if you don't get it you don't deserve to call yourself hardcore or leftist at all!
Posted by: Dimi at April 6, 2006 11:29 AM
The song is accually off of the Napoleon Dynamite Soundtrack and it's by When in Rome and the song is called The Promise and it goes I'm sorry, but I'm just thinking of the right words to say. (I promise)etcetera. I think this is the song your talking about
Posted by: Joe at May 12, 2006 9:34 PM
That photo was taken at Senseless Beauty Cafe in Columbia, South Carolina. I was standing right next to the guy who took this shot.
It was one of the the best and loudest shows I've ever seen.
Posted by: d at October 10, 2006 10:25 PM
about a half hour ago i was at an upstart bar/venue called rotture in portland, or. i was asking the bar tender/co-owner about the pros and cons of running a bar vs. an all ages venue. he said somthing that reminded me of the guy in "another state of mind" complaining about the cramps playing a bar:
"a bar, what are they playing a fucking bar for? who can fucking go see 'em? their fans can't fucking go see 'em? "
i then confessed i'd never seen the movie and only knew the quote from the first antioch arrow 12". he pointed out that he was mac from antioch.
that will go down as the best person-in a- band- that-i-love-meeting that i have ever had.
ps that was the best way i could think of wording that at the momment.
Posted by: kevin at November 6, 2006 1:09 AM
This band was exciting at the time the stencil album and first 7" came out. The live show was a wall of guitars and gave hardcore music a kick in a new direction, wherever that was...
Posted by: aj at January 30, 2007 12:27 AM
antioch arrow shows, receiving tapes.. beautiful days. lucky you.
Posted by: mr. cocktopus at July 25, 2007 9:06 AM
it was that summer between graduating high school and starting that failed idea of college. i was writing a failed screenplay for a failed idea for a failed film with a friend from the texas band carbomb. that third album changed me. i'd loved heroin and clikitat but had never heard antioch arrow and the first one i heard was the one that sounded least like them. i was falling off straight edge and that night my friend and i drank two jugs of julio gallo wine and made art.
"just kiss her/just kiss her just kiss her/just kiss her well my friend."
still one of my top albums.
Posted by: josef at November 5, 2007 8:32 PM
I was at that show. I'd almost forgotten about it. Thank you. I was also heartbroken the first time I heard Gems, but I grew to love it in later years. Still, nothing beats Antioch Arrow live during that era. Except maybe Tarot Bolero live. Oh man...
Posted by: Andy at December 21, 2007 10:08 AM
Post a comment:
being as i wasn't around in california in '94 (i was in kansas and in fourth grade), i can't comment on any fond memories of them live, or being around for any of this releasing. but i have to say, antioch arrow are the best thing ever for when you're just feeling random, and a bit out of the loop of life. a perfect soundtrack for those 'existential doledrums'.
Posted by: chris at August 11, 2004 11:55 PM