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Zut Alors! Camus, Debord, and Kezdy Get A Metra Pass

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By warmowski Jan 23, 2008

Categories: Chicago, Musics and The Punk Rock

 

Reside

So a couple of weeks ago, I heard for the first time the Effigies’ first new record in 400 years, Reside. (It came out in ‘07, so I’m late — sue me. Wait, on second thought, please don’t sue me.)

Even though the shimmering tones and arabic modes of original guitarist Earl Lettiq are missed, Bob McNaughton does a fine job. Add to this the rhythmic litigation excellence of the firm of Economou and Zamost and Reside signifies as a pretty remarkable piece of work all the way through. What has me scratching my head is the burial of the album’s best track "Haz-Mat" at the end of the record.

In these lyrics, singer and lyricist John Kezdy brilliantly redevelops Guy Debord and Albert Camus as a synthesized commuter-train passenger persona who regards the billboards, banal mass obsessions and landmarks of the media wasteland as these whip by at ninety miles an hour. Criticism of spectacle isn’t supposed to rock, but Kezdy and company pull it off:

Morning sheets / unfold on the train

Turn from the glass / stare at the page

…

Review of a billboard / a familiar score

no one is sure / they haven’t seen it before

…

Spectactles by day and night / Haz-mat pulsing blood of life

…

Then at night / they fornicate

Camus’ old quote "A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers." might or might not have been an inspiration here, but it hardly matters. The Effigies are now and have always been a band of modern men who shoulder that particular burden with clear eye and steady hand. I’ve admired their work since I first saw them as a pup in 1982 and I appreciate that they didn’t stop at a single sentence — or 7".

http://warmowski.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/zut-alors-camus-debord-and-kezdy-get-a-metra-pass/

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The Big Takeover

Jack Rabid’s Top Ten — January 13

by Jack Rabid

13 January 2008

#7

The Effigies – Reside (Criminal IQ)

This Chicago punk-turned-post-punk band’s also revived 1980s-punk/indie era contemporaries have already proven that bands could regain bygone inspiration on LP in the ‘00s. But by picking up on 1986, not 1981, thus seizing their own post-punk thread never continued, The Effigies have no modern stylistic peers. And like Ink, it will take several plays before the layers of _Reside_’s smarts and subtleties become as apparent as its strident authority.

http://www.bigtakeover.com/top-ten/Jack-Rabid-080113

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July 09, 2007

Effigies still rule with brains, brawn

It has been 21 years between albums. Their old haunts --- O’Banions, Oz, Dreamerz --- are long gone. But the Effigies still play like they have something to prove. That much was evident over the weekend as the Chicago quartet unveiled a firecracker of a new album, "Reside," at the Double Door.

Singer John Kezdy remained a formidable, glowering presence, his jaw jutting as if daring anyone to throw a punch. His band was a threshing machine that didn’t so much play the songs as mow them down.

Only a false start on "Haunted Town" briefly slowed the momentum.

"We’re old guys, so we tend to forget," Kezdy said by way of teasing apology.

The "old guys" still sound like they have a chip on their shoulders. The Effigies put Chicago punk on the map, but broke up in 1986 not nearly as widely known as bands they inspired such as Naked Raygun and Big Black. Over time, appreciation for the quartet’s early recordings has grown. They still sound like nothing else: A mix of brawn and brains, overdriven guitars that flirted with metal and hyper beats that suggested industrial-strength disco. Yes, dance clubs used to play Effigies records.

At the Double Door, the dancing served as comic relief, with a bunch of fans stumbling around like drunk grizzly bears in front of the stage. But the band was all business. Drummer Steve Economou never raised his sticks above shoulder level, as he pummeled the kit with blacksmith forearms. Bassist Paul Zamost staked out the bottom end and then elbowed past the other instruments to assert himself in the mix. Robert McNaughton’s guitar did a lot with a little; he made each note ring out, and turned every riff into a roundhouse punch,.

Kezdy suffered no ballads. He snapped each syllable, using his voice more like a rhythm instrument as he stared down corruption, aging and death in blunt-edged lyrics. The new songs sounded of a piece with classics such as "Body Bag," "Below the Drop" and "Security." If anything, there was a touch more appreciation of melody, with backing vocals by Zamost and McNaughton beefing up the hooks in "Scarecrow" and "The Full Weight of Failure." Otherwise, this was Effigies music at its best: succinct, fast, brutal. It was music that demanded that listeners move, or risk being barreled over.