Subconsciencely Nebraskan
posted March 20, 2007, 10:29 pm | Log In To Post Comments | 
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Tags: For Against, The Smiths, Joy Division, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, December, Loveless, Nowhere, Echelons, Nebraska
It is much too late for discovery. Darkness has devoured the outside world, and creeps up from the bags under my eyes. The computer monitor bathes my stretched face with a pale lifeless glow. Artists and music flash before my eyes as I take in the information for writing that – my body painfully acknowledges – will take me deeper into the very dead of night. Reviews, articles, features—meaningless pieces of criticism that will soon be forgotten to my dreary mind. Yet, I run across a name time and again, always an influence and always unexplained. A band itself lost in the dreary overwhelming currents of modern music. For Against: the dream-pop experience…from Nebraska. It is much too late for discovery, yet my eyes flare with intrigue.
Now mid-afternoon, my car putters down the road fueled on pure curiosity alone. Three record stores are left behind, picked over with my finely-combed eye, unrelenting in its scope and scrutiny. The shops each had nothing, no sign of the mysterious recluses—and I’m not surprised. For Against reached their peak in the late ‘80s and the fastigium of For Against’s musical career, December, is the prize I seek.
Released 1988, December entered an atmosphere ripe for the brooding intimacy of For Against. Waves were still gravitating from Joy Division, just as Sonic Youth and the Cocteau Twins were entering the underground stratosphere. And yet, the album dropped straight out of pop-knowledge due to futile touring efforts from their isolated location: Lincoln, Nebraska.
Founded in 1984, For Against struggled into a 20-date tour supporting their 1986 debut Echelons, where their budding brand of shoegaze was gobbled up by the Midwest’s underground. By the time of December’s release two years later, For Against were college radio superstars. Success seemed imminent, but the departure of guitarist Harry Dingman and drummer Greg Hill after only one live show foretold December’s quick departure from the popular psyche. But not the subconscious.
If there were any doubt of this in my mind, the frustrated absence of For Against records from store shelves where nearby, piles of My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless sit awaiting prying hands proves it. "Loomer" of Loveless in fact now spills landscapes of dreamy shoegaze through my car speakers. Released three years after December, Loveless and other defining dream-pop/shoegaze albums (Ride, the Chameleons, Yo La Tango) contain the trademark otherworldly guitars that sail dreamingly around detached vocals. These qualities were first realized in full by For Against, and have trickled down to be absorbed subconsciously into a slew of modern acts.
Sonic Youth, Echo & the Bunnymen, Kitchens of Distinction, Catherine Wheel, Slowdrive, and even The Smashing Pumpkins all retain traces of For Against. Whether in their guitar stylings, pulsating bass drives, overflowing effects, or introspective lyrics—December has etched its influence, however subtle, on modern music. Or so I’m told. My infuriated ears moan in anticipation of my reclusive quarry.
At last, amongst the unorganized racks of the fifth used record store, my hands grasp the broken case of December. I rush out to my car and feed the stereo the aged album as swarms of ethereal guitars drown my senses. Opening tracks "Sabres" and "Stranded in Greenland" were not what I was expecting from a band with influences reaching so far and wide. Like My Bloody Valentine stripped of all distortion, or Ride with a vintage touch, For Against retains an aged-authentic sound—much like you’d expect to find in ‘80s flick soundtracks.
Singer Jeffrey Runnings’ youthful voice flares excellently against the flowery instrumentals, gracefully touching on introspective subjects of paranoia, bitterness, solitude, and redemption (most of which can be found contained in "The Last Laugh"). The maturity and originality with which For Against delivers their brand of indie-pop (think Joy Division with an extreme lo-fi touch or a more excitable Smiths) surpasses that expected of a band in their infancy.
After Dingman and Hill departed to pursue their own projects, Runnings limped on. With a replacement lineup, For Against failed to again match the brilliance of December. Their latest work Coalesced, released 2002, received optimistic reviews, but finds For Against still plagued with the detriments that harassed their popularity in 1988.
But that doesn’t have to be the end. Dig up December and For Against from among the record stores shelves, sniff them out and experience the originality of dream-riddled shoegaze indie. Deliciously vintage, For Against’s lo-fi style will not disappoint. With them, uncloak the subconsciously Nebraskan aspect of modern music.
It’s never too late for discovery.
Comments:
Mike, this is an amazing piece. I've never listened to For Against but let me tell you that I'm seeking it out RIGHT NOW all because of your feverish article.
Thanks for that. I love it when someone is so passionate about an album that it inspires something like this.
posted on March 21, 2007, 12:31 pm
