Visqueen, “Hand Me Down”
I don’t want to delve into bad rock crit metaphors, what with the motivation behind creating this record (death of a parent), but shit, Visqueen’s Message to Garcia is pretty darn life-affirming. Rachel Flotard breaks out the maximum riffage and harmonies; it’s loud enough to wake the dead and appease them simultaneously.
In a year where autotune, terrible hippy jam bands (i.e. Animal Collective), and the nu-lo-fi became the gold standard of musical trends, I am not shocked by the lack of wider recognition for Message to Garcia. It’s too straightforward, there’s not enough tape hiss to hide behind, and it’s unabashed love of 1990s rock sensibilities places it squarely outside the Cool-O-Meter.
To counter the musical zeitgiest takes enormous strength and a lot of self-reliance. And in failing to sound trendy, Visqueen lives up to the ideals extolled in the album’s namesake. It chose creative satisfaction over mass appeal. It is astutely self-reliant but not stubborn enough to hide its vulnerability with quieter tracks like “So Long.” I am flattered by the level of honesty Visqueen wants to share with its listeners, and hasn’t dumbed down the material in the process.
