Genre: Post-Hardcore / Post-Punk
Country: USA, Louisville, KY
A lot has happened in the last three years since Xerxes’ debut LP, Our Home is a Deathbed, both in the contemporary hardcore scene and in the band’s personal lives. On Collision Blonde, Calvin Philley vocally delivers feelings on an album he hopes “touches an aggressive place that I’m not comfortable with. I want it to hurt. I want it to be hard to listen to.» Philley comes across as a frantic mess about the last few years of reaching the heralded young age of 21 in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.
The band’s sophomore full length is backed by guitarist Will Allard, bassist Joseph Goode and drummer Ben Sears (who also plays alongside Allard in Whips/Chains). With a new line-up and some years removed from their young, violent hardcore days, Collision Blonde’s instrumental prowess sounds less like their elder contemporaries and more a cleaner tone reminiscent of Jesus and Mary Chain and The Cure, yet sharp and uneasy in the vein of Bauhaus’ early gothic post-punk edge. Tracks like “Knife” and the closing “Nosedive” are aggressively built up into a cathartic release, alluding to Ceremony and mewithoutYou at times.
The band took a couple of weeks, held up in Allard’s basement studio in late March, to record with fellow musician and friend Evan Weiss (You Blew It!, The Jazz June) who helped produce the album. While the music may allude to a heavier dream pop sound, it’s still very much a hardcore record reminiscent of Dischord’s blends of punk and harmony. Collision Blonde is a lyrical wreck that’s driven by love, drugs, depression and waking up in a cold sweat wondering «What’s next for me?» on a consistent basis. It’s thoughtfully countered with a harmonic jangle of reverb, delay and hooks, as Xerxes has created their most polarizing work to date.
Site: Facebook
Support: Bandcamp
Xerxes — 2010 — Twins
Year: 2010
Quality: mp3, VBR 269 kbps
Size: 20,45 MB
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01. Gold
02. Siren Song
03. Commonplace
04. US 60
05. Glendower Drive
06. Twins
07. Tuesday
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Xerxes — 2012 — Our Home Is A Deathbed
Year: 2012
Quality: mp3, 320 kbps
Size: 61,31 MB
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01. Wake
02. Sleep
03. Tide/This Place As A Prison
04. Suburban Asphalt
05. Fever Dream
06. Summer Storms/Winter Leaves
07. February
08. Our City As A Floodplain
09. Funeral Home
10. Sleepwalking With You
11. Our Home Is A Deathbed
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Xerxes — 2014 — Collision Blonde
Year: 2014
Quality: mp3, 320 kbps
Size: 64,20 MB
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01. I Was Wrong
02. Criminal, Animal
03. A Toast
04. Knife
05. Use As Directed
06. Chestnut Street
07. Collison Blonde
08. Exit 123
09. (but here we are)
10. Nosedive
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