Stretch Arm Strong -- A Revolution Transmission

7/10

Certain albums you forget about, then you remember, go, "Oh yeah, Stretch Arm Strong, A Revolution Transmission!" jam out to, enjoy, and wonder how you ever forgot them. I won a demo-version of A Revolution Transmission from Soulglow, a few months before I became a Soulglow co-host. Soulglow frequently aired Stretch Arm Strong's hard-rocking version of Counting Crows "Angels of the Silences," and I was pumped to win the album. I enjoyed the hardcore disc a lot, though not maybe as much as some other releases from Stretch Arm Strong's record label at the time, Solid State, like Embodyment's The Narrow Scope of Things, or Living Sacrifice's The Hammering Process, or Zao's...well, any Zao album.
When I started DJ'ing at KLSU, and co-hosting Soulglow, sometimes we'd be up against a break and need to play a quick, three-minute jam. "Oh, yeah, something from A Revolution Transmission would fit here nicely!" I'd say. And it did fit nicely. Indeed, in addition to perfectly filling out a program schedule, Stretch Arm Strong gained a reputation at the time for being the "nice guys of hardcore." The one time I made it to the Cornerstone Festiveal in Bushnell Illinois, it was the epic 2002 edition, and Stretch played out the festival for me. They were so danged affable, I was ready to throw all my money at them by the end of their supercharged, high energy, South Carolina flag-waving set.
As I throw on 2001's A Revolution Transmission now, that high-energy, affable nature is still there. The band's aggressive, yet positive hardcore music still gets the blood pumping, with fierce vocals, chug-a-chug guitars, and boom-tap, boom-tap, boom-tap drums. However, despite some memorable melodies in the guitar at points, and even in the vocals, which switch to some bellowy group-singing at moments, I do now find that the album gets a little stale and lengthy before the end. 13 tracks is maybe two or three too many for what A Revolution Transmission does. When variety seems to rear its head, like on the string-heavy intro to "The Truth About Iowa," the song will soon leave that variation in the dust, as "...Iowa" gets right back into the hardcore chuggy sounds of the rest of the album, without really incorporating any of the ideas or tones of the intro into the rest of the song. While just hearing variety in the intros was interesting to me in 2001, it's actually a little disappointing to me now, as I feel a little more creativity in incorporating those sounds into the entirety of the songs could have contributed to the creation of a classic album.
As it stands, A Revolution Transmission puts the "Solid" in "Solid State," but I can't help but think what would have happened if frequent Solid State producer, Barry Poynter, could have gotten his hands on the band while they were in the recording studio (the album is self-produced). He may have been able to get Stretch Arm Strong to think about adding a bit more complexity to their sound--but...well, obviously that's a fantasy of mine...Oh, wait, it looks like he produced Rituals of Life, the Stretch Arm Strong album before this. Just give me 34 minutes and...
Well, nevermind. Compared to Rituals of Life, A Revolution Transmission is the experimental one. So much for that!
Well, stay tuned for next time. I'll be making a hard turn from this to...Sufjan Stevens?!


2001 Solid State Records
1. Means To An End 2:58
2. Worst Case Scenario 2:50
3. The Truth About Iowa 3:23
4. For The Record 2:05
5. Take Back Control 2:56
6. When Words Escape 4:20
7. Kill The Light 3:32
8. Still Believe, Part II 2:14
9. Dreams Away 3:12
10. Positive Aspects Of Negativity 2:57
11. Transmission Demolition 1:48
12. Parasite Complex 3:32
13. Angels Of The Silences (originally by Counting Crows) 3:13