Does anyone else remember when Ian Svenonius was interviewing Henry Rollins on his show Soft Focus? At one point they brought up the idea of freedom actually being a constraining concept by referencing the awesome Saccharine Trust song "We Don't Need Freedom". Anyone who has followed Svenonius in any of his musical projects is probably familiar with his satirical wit that he seems to incorporate in to everything he touches at least in some part. Keeping that in mind I think his new project "Chain and the Gang" is a good extension of him and some other interesting musicians taking that idea and running with it.
People seem to either really dig Svenonius and his multiple artistic endeavors since the Nation of Ulysses or they don't seem to have the patience for them. Not to say that listening to the Make Up is some type of transcendental experience that only a fortunate minority can enjoy but more that he is interpreted by some as being redundant. I guess I feel like in this situation there is no reason to fix it if its not broken, I haven't reached that point in my listening to his records where I feel like they are monotonous. With that said, I have been playing the shit out of "Down with Liberty, Up with Chains" by Svenonius and his new group of familiar faces. I read that he originally intended to record a spoken word record with Calvin Johnson in his famous basement and this is what resulted. I can definitely say that I am glad it did, maybe that spoken word album would have been the thing to make me loose patience.
A look at the cover of this record is a great explanation of the ideas and overall aesthetic that you will get with Chain and the Gang. I think the actual music on the album has more of a blues influence than most of his more recent releases but there is still plenty of catchy garage rock as well. It seems like on this record he really perfected the call and response rhythm with his vocals which he is already kind of known for. Bottom line is if you like what Ian Svenonius has been doing for the last two decades than this will probably be a welcome addition to your collection, if not you probably gave up a long time ago.
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