{"id":6660,"date":"2012-05-11T16:45:06","date_gmt":"2012-05-11T23:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/?p=6660"},"modified":"2012-07-20T00:51:30","modified_gmt":"2012-07-20T07:51:30","slug":"explosion-in-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2012\/05\/11\/explosion-in-austin\/","title":{"rendered":"CD review: Hate &#038; Love by El Pathos"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>New Music From Austin<\/h3>\n<p><a class=\"twitter-share-button\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" data-count=\"none\" data-via=\"reviewermag\">Tweet<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/El-Pathos-CD-Pic.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-6661\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/El-Pathos-CD-Pic-150x150.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>El Pathos<br \/>\n<em>Hate &amp; Love<\/em><br \/>\nSaustex Media, 2012<br \/>\nReview by Kent Manthie<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Austin, Texas\u2019s El Pathos have broken through in 2012 to rave reviews and platitudes that run the gamut from the subtle to the sublime. The one blurb that caught my attention was one from Rank &amp; Review, which gushed that El Pathos \u201c\u2026May have nailed their very own <em>Exile on Main Street<\/em> on the first try\u2026\u201d Their very own <em>Exile on Main Street<\/em> \u201con their first try\u201d? Well, I must say that is certainly a heap of praise but I\u2019d also say that the reviewer who wrote that may have been a little overawed by <em>Hate &amp; Love<\/em>, El Pathos\u2019s \u201cfirst try\u201d. Not to take away anything from El Pathos, but, I mean, c\u2019mon, let\u2019s get real here. No debut can be honestly compared to a seminal album that has been used as a yardstick of sorts in measuring how great a certain rock \u2018n\u2019 roll album is. In fact, using <em>Exile\u2026<\/em> as a standard, especially 40 years after its release has become somewhat of a clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>While El Pathos is comprised of musicians who are in no way neophytes \u2013 their line-up consists of ex-members of such indie powerhouses as The Dicks, Catbutt, Offenders and a few others \u2013 <em>Hate &amp; Love<\/em> marks their first release as a unit. They are on one of Austin\u2019s premier indie labels: Saustex Media, run by the hip Jeff Saustex who himself is no failed or wannabe musician \u2013 Mr. Saustex is in his own band \u2013 The Hickoids, who, of course, are on his label (see my reviews of the first couple Hickoids CDs for a rundown of them). So, there\u2019s a local connection here, which is Austin, TX \u2013 a very hip part of Texas. In fact, y\u2019all can keep Dallas and Houston, etc, but give me Austin. But then what do I know about Texas? I\u2019ve never been to the state. I\u2019ve been all over the Southwest and the West, but never been to the South or the Pacific Northwest (i.e., OR, WA). But believe me, I have no desire to go to Idaho. I have been through Montana, though, once and I thought it was beautiful.<\/p>\n<p>Songs: \u201cEyes\u201d is a slow-burning gem \u2013 it starts out like kindling and builds up to a whirling flame of a wicked guitar solo , courtesy of guitarist Rob Buford. The next song in line is \u201cGhost\u201d, which also has some balls-to-the-wall guitar wailing. \u201cGhost\u201d starts off sounding a little like Social Distortion; that same kind of fire engine intensity; it has a fast candle-burning quality to it, the crux of it being an outsider\u2019s view of the dead-end, nighttime happenings in town, but with a fist-in-the-air aura to it which shows a sense of pride in being that \u201coutsider\u201d \u2013 \u201cI walk those dead end streets of the town\/like some inhuman ghost\u2026\u201d and \u201cTalk about the darkest place\/You\u2019re the darkest place in the world\/Somewhere on the other side of midnight\/Somewhere on the other side\u2026\u201d From beginning to end, there is nonstop energy just bursting at the seams. Next, things slow down a notch with the bluesy but introspective\/personal song, \u201cNo Blood of Mine\u201d \u2013 \u201cWell there\u2019s a man that I-I once knew\/I even called him \u201cfather\u201d too\/He told me that he\u2019d love me blind\/But he ain\u2019t no blood of mine&#8230;\u201d Obviously a song about a father that did him (the songwriter) wrong \u2013 another poignant lyric: \u201cI swear I could kill that man\/And you know someday I just might\u201d. This is certainly no paean to one\u2019s nice daddy, but an angry polemic that, in no uncertain terms, screams \u201cJ\u2019accuse\u201d \u2013 in other words, that guy my mama married was a bastard! I can\u2019t lie \u2013 not every cut is as good as \u201cEyes\u201d, but the next one that pricked up my ears was \u201cSundown\u201d a guitar-cum-chainsaw screw-in-the-head. Then, probably my favorite cut on Hate &amp; Love: \u201cLittle Black Drops\u201d. It was kind of hard, to tell the truth, to understand what they were exactly singing. But I must say I was blown away by the \u201cwah-wah\u201d infected guitar solo, which more than that, just really screamed like a banshee, pushing its heavy dose straight into your arms. Yeah, that\u2019s what I figured it was about too \u2013 dope. What else could those \u201cLittle Black Drops\u201d be referring to? Besides, one line I did understand was something akin to \u201cThat little sliver ain\u2019t gonna hold me\u201d and \u201cI got lots of drugs!\u201d Ironically, \u201cSuffering Kind\u201d sounds a little like the other side of the hell-bent for kicks mayhem of \u201cLittle Black Drops\u201d \u2013 a song that seems to be reflecting on the not-so-great parts of addiction, i.e., getting dope sick, needing that fix to be well and feeling like punching you in the face as soon as talk to you (unless you\u2019re the man). Of course, that\u2019s just one interpretation of a couple songs; there wasn\u2019t all that much flat-out un-metaphorical lyrical confession to figure it out. \u201cRockets Red Glare\u201d, I found out, is actually not about the late, great and overweight character actor who played as many diverse characters in about 1000 small roles in many indie cult-status films, for instance, he pops in at the end of Talk Radio as the guy who kills actor Eric Bogosian\u2019s \u201cshock jock\u201d radio host character. He\u2019s been in just about every Jim Jarmusch film in some small part, had a little scene in David Lynch\u2019s Fire Walk With Me \u2013 the film version of his Twin Peaks TV show (Whoa \u2013now THERE is a story I could do a whole book about \u2013 Redglare\u2019s real name was Michael Morra and one of the more notorious parts of his life is the fact that he, being a huge dope fiend and heavy drinker, supplied Sid Vicious with a stockpile of Dilaudid that Sid used to overdose on after killing girlfriend, Nancy Spungen in the notorious Chelsea Hotel in NYC. In a book, author Phil Strongman implies that he thinks it was Redglare (Morra) who actually murdered Nancy. But that\u2019s way beyond speculation.<\/p>\n<p>But I digress. Anyway, this is a great album. Indeed it is one of the better debuts of a band \u2013 especially a debut that wasn\u2019t an \u201carranged debut\u201d \u2013 from a band that had been working for a while and suddenly gets found by some slick pimp from a major label and gets signed to a Time Warner-owned label, etc (e.g, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, etc). No, these guys, while they do have history in other bands so they\u2019ve \u201cbeen around\u201d, got together not too long ago and decided \u201cwhat the hell\u201d and wrote up a bunch of songs, recorded them and got Jeff to put the output of their creativity \u2013 <em>Hate &amp; Love<\/em> on his Saustex label. Now, I still can\u2019t say this is like making a debut as influential and with the classicity of <em>Exile on Main Street<\/em>, El Pathos, who have been compared to quite a different crowd of people \u2013 and an eclectic list at that: everyone from The Zombies (no, not at all, I don&#8217;t know who could&#8217;ve connected one to the other), Nick Cave (yes, his spirit is felt in there somewhere), The Stooges, 13th Floor Elevators, AC\/DC (maybe, when they still had Bon Scott and weren\u2019t a bad joke) as well as Townes van Zandt. As I mentioned earlier, there is one other comparison that just can\u2019t be overlooked and that is Social Distortion. The fiery jamming and no-holds-barred, beer-soaked riffs show that quite well. Check this one out! You may not find it at your local rip-off chain store (like Virgin Megastore, which is the most overpriced, crappiest place on earth to buy music or books). But Amazon has it and, of course, you can go to the source \u2013 saustexmedia.com to buy it straight from Jeff. I just hope that El Pathos stay true to this verve and keep the beers comin\u2019. Cheers!<\/p>\n<p><strong>-KM<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Music From Austin Tweet El Pathos Hate &amp; Love Saustex Media, 2012 Review by Kent Manthie Austin, Texas\u2019s El Pathos have broken through in 2012 to rave reviews and platitudes that run the gamut from the subtle to the sublime. The one blurb that caught my attention was one from Rank &amp; Review, which gushed that El Pathos \u201c\u2026May [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,573],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3477,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2010\/12\/25\/exile-on-kettner-nope\/","url_meta":{"origin":6660,"position":0},"title":"Xmas Exile On Kettner","author":"admin","date":"December 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Exile On Kettner Blvd? 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