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Show Eni gk Turns b C y h r .eremy Enigk, the former j I "voice" 1 1 couldn't really take much . t any- an i fort me, and had a kind of period. It behind Sunny Day Real Estate, surprised fans in '96 1 with Return of the Frog Quuh, KJf his first solo album. Instead of die haunting "emo-cor- e or approach of Sunny Day, Enigk created a far different beast on orchestrated album. After personal and band tensions reached an intolerable. level in Sunny Day Real Estate, Enigk went through a period of personal crisis. "I got to a point were, personally, I 1 i change my life, and heT ize that I wasn't realhy soul-searchi- Ar :f) jl'LXueJTd i is ng -- me Trie reali4-Su- I . the only one whoever and on top Vi the dead," rose nny SKitly after JDay, and it just wt-m-f-t- ble tor me to be in that band and sing about God,' Enigk said. - mm as Sunnier Chapter a res, he Prior to Enigk's tra Enigk ed from Sunny Day. One c..-- .. rw. win MendeO turned Fighters, and th-ett- er, r disappeared for a mon notifying Sub Pop (his or many other people Internet chatter began prew demise of Sunny Day. remained, your get panties in a wad, tnat Enigk's born-aga- The silence finally ended vn letter to a fan Enigk's open named Seth Littlefield. The letter listeners to recognize. To Enigk's credit, he 'speaks in in ail more," said Enigk. Instead of as many rockstars do, Enigk found a less obvious outlet "I started reading the Bible to com- - Jither than becoming a vapid or a erzealous "Tesus-frea- k non-believ- ers detailed Enigk's spiritual mm istian-roc- k zeaL like tion in all it's born-agahis faith in cloaked "I must say that the true GcV. Enigk .yper, the one who is in the Bible, Jesu"symboIs and phrases too cryptic for self-paro- in tongues' enough that aren't forced to endure preaching. Return. carries none of the condescension, sappiness or literalness songwriter. expected of a bonr-agaiAs Eriigk said, "I never really say the name of Jesus." Instead, Enigk's lyrics and vocal delivery retain or gain effect from cryptic phrasing. Part of the reason may be Enigk's method of arriving at lyrics. "1 arrive at die words naturally, he said. 1 sing diem and whatever sounds good or what makes sense, that's what IU use, even to the extent of making up words like 'dalJov is a word I'll use and it's not a word." v By making the lyrics fit die musk, Enigk finds his way to words, in the service of melody, lending his lyrics an ethereal quality. Formed in this dy , n Jeremy Enigk fashion, the lyrics also avoid typical folk lyric formats there is no Instead, Enigk's words flow from start to finish, without repeating at afl. While Enigk respects songwriters who write within traditional modes he said, "I can't write lyrics a certain way. You listen to Bob Dylan or Elvis Costello and John Lennon lyrics verse-chorus-ver- se. T -- - ,v ' and they're brilliant they rhyme and they fit and they're very intelligent lyrics. I don't find myself a very intelligent lyricist or poet AT ALL, but it comes outJ use what I have.". Enigk approaches words less inte- llectually, and more musically, exploiting the rangy muskality of a voice unparalleled in rock. "When I'm singing it's more about the tones of the word, the way that it rhymes with die musk, rather than what I'm saying," Enigk said. . While Enigk's lyrical approach hasn't changed much from the Sunny Day days, the music behind Chuiei Petcnoa 7- u - rn 1 " The hardcore genre is difficult to . , n y explain. Originating from punk bands' such as the Sex Pistols, the Gash and the Ramones, and igniting in New York, and to an extent Los ' Angeles, hardcore bands became the angry, young '80s energy translated into music With its fast, loud, abrasive sound, hardcore music grew into the blaring trumpet call of skateboarders in the '80s and was a healthy alternative to the "gtam" stylings of Motley Crue and the Bullet Boys. Hardcore car- ' ried over into the present with such ; loyal and stereotypical fans as skaters, snowboarders, and straight-edge- rs fans of. hardcore music). s New Coming out of the York Hardcore scene (the same scene that bore the Gorilla Biscuits, Agnostic Front, and Bad Brains) are Sick of It M. One of the longest lastmid-'80- ing bands in the hardcore genre (they were formed in 1986), the n H band still plays as hard and energetic as when they first formed. ' Craig Setari, the band's bassist, promises the audience "the most energetic live performance theyU ever see. One hundred percent of what we can giveis what well give every night No' slacking, no choreographed garbage, ; ' just straight-u- p hardcore played fast and from the guts." Sick of It AH has played countless live shows the world over, including such tours as the first Warped Tour in 1995. "We find playing live very fulfilling, more fulfilling than finishing an. album," Setari says. "An album is something that we're trying our best to make sound like we're playing it live. It's difficult to capture that in a studio, because we're out of the live element When you see Sick of It All live, you see what we're all about, because we're lettin' it bleed. It is very clear that the band loves what it is doing, and doesn't feel CORE I k After recording home ck demo material with an acoustic gui- tar "just for fun," Enigk found a desire to add "musical cokes, which you can't get from a traditional rock band." Sub Pop organized a collaboration with arranger Mark Nichols. The enlistment of a 21 piece orchestra ensued, yielding the melancholy beauty of Return... Unlike many pop albums of the past and present, which use strings as a flourish or crutch, Return, uses the orchestra as the basis of songs. From this approach, Enigk created -- one of the finest rock albums of '96 an album on par with some of Nick Drake's finer moments. But Enigk doesn't plan to rest on' his laurels. Reaching well beyond his 22 years, Enigk is currently at work on a new album scored entirely by himself. "I'm actually writing out the notes, which is just a crazy thing for me, because it involves a lot of math, which I'm not really good at," Enigk said. With typical amiable and candor, Enigk doesn't hesitate to credit others with his growth and success. 1 learned a lot from Mark and the various musi; cians," he said. A few of these same musicians are touring with Enigk as part of a nine self-effaci- NOT MISS THIS SHOW. ? ,55 . cash in. "That doesn't effect us, because we do what we do best We're not changing for anyone. As far as losing a fan base, what happens is if you sell out, you sell out your fans and it hurts you in the end. Money's a floundering thing; money comes and goes, but when you get someone's respect, it goes a lot deeper than the ' 1 - superficial. Skk of It AH will ftay Ouh DV$ with Good Riddance and Enzyme Saturday Mat. 1$tk f ng piece orchestra including cello, viola, violin, piccolo, clarinet, and traditional rock instruments (drums, bass and two guitars). In what promises to be the rock musk event of the year, this incarnation of "Jeremy Enigk" will appear in the U. Fine Arts Auditorium Wednesday, March 19 at 8 p.m. Locals Stella Brass open the show. Tickets are S10 at Graywhale, The Heavy Metal Shop and Raunch. DO "111 a that it would ever transfer to other styles of music to sell albums or sell out shows. "We find it very satisfying to be a hardcore band," says Setari. "We're doing what we know and what we feel, and that makes us very genuine. "A lot of bands will make it big, and think 'All right, we're going to be big stars now and change their style, change what they're good at, change what they represent to try to the words changed drastically with Return. Gone is the rock band. John Falls |