ANYWAY – dead end

(CD, Silver Rocket / more noise less music)

Every year when springtime finally arrives and the world is getting ready to stow away pullovers and thick coats in exchange for looser clothing and more colourful shirts, I start to search for two things that mean the start of the warm part of the year for me: one is an electronica record that has nice beats and a laid-back feeling but enough progressiveness to keep me interested yet enough trip hop or dancefloor easiness to keep me relaxed. In the last years that was for instance the Thievery Corporation, Kaito or Akufen. The other thing is an energetic, rocking yet melodic and harmonious punk-record, that has enough punch and drive to keep me going yet enough pop-appeal to help me enjoy the sun, and of course it should have a certain level of intelligence, otherwise I would have to take the easy way out and buy the annual Green Day album, which is way too trite and bland for me. No, moreover I want some sprays of noiserock or at least Sixties-Garage-Punk mixed in my Punkrock. In the last years this included, from the top of my head, bands like Sixer, The Weakerthans, Maritime or Everclear. So quite a varied mix. I know, to some people some of these selections seem a little, well, not cool enough for someone writing about music and always acting so aloof from the ways and listening habits of regular teenagers. First, I am not a teenager – not even far anymore – and second, these records chose me usually. They pop up somewhere, in the right spot and the right time and they hit a nerve. Yes, I do look for them, but it is not as if I am listening through the whole new arrivals section at my local punkrock market, instead I am keeping my ears and eyes open and at one point, ping, the record will be in front of me and I know it. And if not, then not. Usually my life is none worse without a summer record. Well, this year I will have to keep my ears open for an electronica record only, because “dead end” by Anyway might be the best summer stuff to come my way. (And I was afraid it might turn out the new one by Sonic Youth. Oh, well.)

The good thing about this choice is that it fills all my needs as mentioned above and more. From the first line, the first strike of a guitar chord, the fourpiece rockband fills your ears with a cool mix of pop-punk, noise rock and a little emo, which also means there is a lot of variety on the record. The pace is fast but never hectically speeding, which as any experienced driver knows are two different things. I mean you can pound a small Mazda to the floor and make 160 km/h on the highway but that’s not a cool thing for the car nor does it show any special skills in driving. Going too fast is easy. Driving fast with foresight and overview is something completely else. For that you can take a Corvette or Mustang and give it a little leash and it will make 160 km/h and hum deeply and satisfied. This here definitely is a big car with lots of horsepower and the drivers are experienced and find their way around on a lot of different routes. Accordingly, the energy-level remains high throughout, no matter if Anyway pound out a bluespunkstomper including harmonica (the opener “Lost”) or fall back into a sturdy poppunk lovesong like “Love Affairs” or a more noiserock pounder such as “Cunny”. Which again shows their variety, though it has to be mentioned, that nowhere is there a song that doesn’t fit into the overall sound or falls out of the scheme of things. Whether the band breaks into a song with a heavy drum solo that belies the guitar- and chorus line coming right after (again “cunny”) or does a nice background choir or breaks the arrangement in various parts only to tie them together a few moments later in a different fashion (e.g. on “In the city”), the underlying fundament remains the same: energetic and tight melodic rock that is more concerned with the flow of songs than to pump out muscle-ridden riffs alone. These dudes know how to command a song, ride it like a wave and bring it home when the time is due. This might be due to their age, because obviously they aren’t teenagers anymore and grown up men demand different things from their rock than youngsters, don’t feel the need to show off (“look, I drank three beers and now I am completely pissed, whoopee…”) and have some experience to let flow into their songs. In other words, a mature cool is something way different from a teenage cool, because kids are easy to impress. Moreover, if they decide to do something, they’ll put in energy and focus. (Anyway can be found on myspace, purevolume and bandzone – now if that isn’t focused, I don’t know either.)

I know some people call that “post-punk”, but as with “post-rock” back then or the “post-modernism”, I do have my problems with tha affix “post-“ to anything, except the word “office”. I’d call this good shit or music that makes me feel a lot younger than I really am. If the time is right, the place also and word gets out to me, I’d even go and see them play live.