Lies and Rhetoric

Statehood features ex-members of The Dismemberment Plan and Motorcycle Wars. Enter Statehood. Lies and Rhetoric delivers twelve disparate tracks of raw, unapologetic, and infectiously energetic rock. After a couple of listens, it's easy to get all hyperbolic and just start spitting praise, listing comparable bands and analogous sounds, etc, but the truth is that this is music best suited for listening. Keep the analysis for your therapy session. The instrumental three-quarters of the band are in perfect power-trio lockstep, with guitarist Thompson dropping hyperfunk riffage that would make D. Boon smile in his grave, and the Easley/Axelson combo holding things so down that they’re fucking floating away like a wayward balloon high up in the sky. Classic dub-influenced punk shit here. And Clark Sabine's throaty, emotive vocals - reminiscent of Samiam's Jason Beebout or Seaweed's Aaron Stauffer — tie it all together. Dude sings like DC. There's a worldly yet disenfranchised, "don't forget about us" to his voice. - scissorkick