Oblivians/ Andre Ethier – Split 7”
Audio Visual/Vice, 2010
Acquired: Scion Garage Fest, New, 2010
Price: Free
I don’t know how it happened, but for some reason Toyota
decided to hoste one of its Garage Fest events in Lawrence Fucking Kansas.
Considering that bands frequently
skip over the KC Metro Area, this was a bit of a shock, but not at all
unwelcome. There I got to see the Clean, the Oblivians, Cloud Nothings, Hunx
and His Punx, Times New Viking, Gentleman Jesse, Best Coast, and (my) beloved
local heroes, the bygone Rooftop Vigilantes (fuck the Get Up Kids, they the
best Lawrence band evah). Fucking weird. Fucking awesome. Sometimes big corporations
do cool things. It’s rare, but it happens. Anyway, the Oblivians played right
after the Clean and since I started drinking at around 3:30 that afternoon I’d
developed a massive evening hangover and left early. I was bummed, but not as
bummed as I would have been had I had to skip out on Oblivians frontman Greg
Cartwright’s other band the Reigning Sound, who I was massively,
head-over-heels in love with at the time. The Oblivian’s contribution to this
7” is a surprisingly clean sounding garage rock track titled “Oblivion” (Wryly
not titled “Oblivian”?) and… it sounds like what almost all garage rock sounds
like to me. Pretty good, I wouldn’t change the station if it came on the radio,
but doesn’t really move me. I don’t know why the Reigning Sound does and the
Oblivians don’t, this I just plain cannot explain.
Canadian singer-songwriter Andre Ethier (not to be confused
with the Dodger’s outfielder. Seriously, how are there two dudes named Andre
Ethier? Fun fact: Ethier sang the Canadian National Anthem in LA when the
Toronto Blue Jays were in town and got the job purely based on his shared name
with the aforementioned Dodger) does great work with his bluesy juke joint
inspired b-side "Promising Rainbows," which plays like a b-side by the Band. He’s a kindred spirit of
Kurt Vile and the War on Drugs and that ilk. You know, those folks who want to
bring back rock n’ roll.
Oblivians - "Oblivion"
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