For Against

For Against, formed in the mid-80s and once described as Nebraska's lone entry into the dream pop world, offer an extremely nifty, but shamefully overlooked, combination of monochromatic post-punk, cascading guitars, and drifting, gliding atmospherics with fantastically rhythmic bass lines. With their early records, For Against were the lone US challenger of the supremacy of the various brooding British early-to-mid-80s outfits. The band states its influences as follows: "Joy Division, The Smiths, Pale Saints, Kitchens of Distinction, early R.E.M., The Sound, The Church, House of Love, Felt, Ride, Field Mice, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, The Chills." Instead of falling captive to these influences, the band forged out of them its own engagingly gloomy sound that is as exciting and worthy of accolades as early Catherine Wheel and Lush. I would add The Chameleons as a clear influence, but already this list, and the fact that the For Against exhibit firebrand musical skill, should send you running for their records.

The classic For Against records are the just slightly derivative Echelons (1987; reissued 2004), the stunning December (1988; reissued 2005), and the wonderfully melodic and hypnotic Coalesced (2002). Apart from the disappointing Aperture (1993), their other records Mason's California Lunch Room (1995) and Shelf Life (1997) are also well worth checking out. (Access a bunch of reviews here.) It's a travesty that these records aren't better known.

For Against have a MySpace page, which reports that they're in the studio recording their seventh album (slated for release later in 2007) and will be playing in Athens in March (no US dates planned though). Not many videos to be found, and not of their very best songs, but here's one for the title track of Echelons. (For the rockers out there, the song picks up 2:15 in.)



This is a Filling in the gaps post.