From U-TURN magazine, January 1994
(some grammar and spelling problems fixed)
Course of Empire
by Mike Metzger
It's 8:30 P.M. on the first Monday of this new year, and I'm among the
current lineup of Dallas' Course of Empire. As we approach the band's
studio, hidden in one of the city's less than sanitary settings, I am
warned by the newest half of the band's two drummers, Michael Jerome,
"Watch your step!" (Jerome and I have known each other since high
school and we've always looked out for each other.) But on the first
Monday of 1994, Homey caught me slippin', right into a pile of Fido's
finest.
Little did I know that this embarrassing incident was a segueway into
one of the seldom-told mysteries the band encountered in this past
year of woodshedding, as recounted by guitarist Mike Graff and
vocalist Vaughn Stevenson:
"Okay, there's a funny story we have to tell you about. There's no
bathroom in our rehearsal studio. Since we're here for long periods
at a time, and since there aren't any public facilities nearby, we
started going back behind the studio to take a shit in this cardboard
box. We did it on a number of occasions, and we all started noticing
that each time we went back out there, the shit we took the day before
was gone. For the longest time, we couldn't figure out what was
happening to our shit! So I (Stevenson) go around back to take a
shit, and the same place where I had been going, there's this note,
stuck up on the wall, that said, 'Hey Shitters! Please, don't shit
outside. My dog eats it!' We figured it was this guy that works near
the studio and brings his dog, and we put up a sign that basically
said: 'stay out of our shit!'"
(Graff) "Why do dogs do that?"
(Jerome) "Cause it's got good food in it." (laughter) "I'm serious!
That's a gourmet meal, compared to the dog food they normally have to
eat."
I'll never think of gourmet foor the same way again. Which, in a
twisted sort of way, is what Course's new record, Initiation, is
about: the typical perception of the senses; how you normally
consider sight, sound or even taste is only one of the many ways
senses can be interpreted. The title track from Initiation,
consisting of accidental feedback, ended up creating an unspoken theme
that ties the album together. "We had just watched Hellraiser," says
drummer Chad Lovell, "and I went over to the board; I was going to try
to fuck around with this processor, and make my voice go (Lovell does
his lowest Hellraiser-grindcore growl). Something was hooked up wrong
and it just started squealin' out this weird noise." Stevenson adds,
"It was like the sound of nothing, just air moving around." "It's one
of those things where at first you hear feedback and you think ah,
that's bad, and you turn it off," Graff explains, "but if you stop and
listen to it, there's a tonal center to it, and there are all these
sounds floating around in there that are constantly generating
melodies." Course of Empire hopes that the vision they found in this
epic looping of sounds (created from recorded silence) will be
understood by listeners as proof that silence isn't always quiet, and
that they have the ability to expand the way they normally interpret
life.
Of course, the guys probably wouldn't mind if you just liked the new
record because it rocks. At its best, Initiation does rock. On songs
like "Hiss," Course still delivers their traditionally dark wall of
sound, but more interestingly, they mix in a Middle Eastern influence
into a lot of songs. The first single, "Infested," creates the most
peculiar hybrid of music genres, with its big-band era beat, a rock-
abilly guitar feel, and shouting, industrial-esque vocals. Even
though Course's sound on Initiation is parallel to the sound of the
band's 1990 debut, the band is much happier with this recording.
Lovell explains his opinion of COE's debut; "It's like when you write
letters to a girl you're freaked out about, and for whatever reason,
you forget to mail one of those letters. You find the letter two
years later and then when you read it you're like 'what was I
thinking?" So a long period of hibernating, recording, auditioning
drummers, and more importantly, a period of redefining a sound, has
given Course plenty of time to think about what they had written two
years ago, and what they wanted to say in 1994.
Enticed from the buzz surrounding Course's CMJ performance last
October, and anxiously awaiting the results of the band's first big-
time video shoot, Zoo releases Initiation on the 18th of this month.
After its release, Course of Empire's plans include extensive touring,
topping alternative radio/video playlists (well, probably not the
playlists of Dallas' KDGE, but the playlists of every other
alternative radio station in the country), and somewhere on the road
to fame and fortune, upgrading to a rehearsal studio with plumbing.
Join the only rock band from Texas to play with rappers Public Enemy,
not just once, but twice, as they celebrate Initiation's release at
Deep Ellum Live, Saturday, January 22.
(
geocities.com/sunsetstrip/club/Club) (
geocities.com/sunsetstrip/club) (
geocities.com/sunsetstrip)