Split Premiere - Hazzard's Cure/Walken
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Splits are a funny way of delivering music. Our own Jon Rosenthal described their defining traits best:
“…the strongest split releases either feature either 1) two extremely different genres, one acting as a foil to the other, or 2) two strong, individually defined examples of a specific subgenre of music.”
But there is a third way for a split to succeed, even if it’s less noted by the online journalism world. When bands from the same community get together for a collaborative release, it can act as a celebration of their scene regardless of the musical content. In this way, the split release becomes less of a magnet for new listeners and more of a fun keepsake for the locals. It’s a vinyl snapshot of a time when your ideal Saturday night is spent seeing these bands raising hell at your favorite watering hole.
The two bands on this split seven-inch, Hazzard’s Cure and Walken, feature members that have punched in time in the San Francisco and Oakland music scenes for well over a decade. These bands are impossible to pigeonhole into a single subgenre or even a “Bay Area sound”–thrash, stoner rock, doom, black metal and even hardcore punk can be heard across these two songs. It’s a sonic amalgam that looks to the past to make something new and interesting, one that couldn’t have been made in any other time but now.
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If you can’t describe Hazzard’s Cure with a genre, then a feeling will have to do. It’s like walking on a tightrope; always on the edge of falling over, but maintaining an ever-tight virtuosity that keeps the balance intact. Clint Baechle’s frantic open-hand drumming is the engine that drives “Gracious Host,” a song that boasts screeching gremlin cries set against classical melodies seeping with Mission District grease. Hazzard’s Cure is a band whose hyperactivity is always apparent in their music and in their personalities: “Gracious Host” is no exception.
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Walken offers a more bloodthirsty side of the split with their contribution. The drumming once again pushes the track to the edge, but this time it’s Zack Farwell (Grayceon, Squalus, ex-Giant Squid) who’s behind the sticks. His endless blasting provides a rock-solid foundation for the thrashing that rips throughout “Taking Teeth.” Bassist and vocalist Shane Bergman, who also performs the same duties in Hazzard’s Cure, litters the track with his weed-whacked shouts and gives Walken the punk edge that the best Bay Area bands take with them wherever they go. It makes for a song that kicks more ass with a handful of riffs than most bands can muster on an entire LP.
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