These Arms Are Snakes -- This Is Meant to Hurt You

9/10

My last few weeks of college, I did some aimless driving, having no clue what came next. Late 2004, a special fall, trees skeletal, driving along the levee, listening to the radio station I'd no longer be able to DJ for after my upcoming graduation...have I mentioned in any of these reviews that I miss being a DJ? Suddenly, a voice came out of my car speakers, shout-speaking and screaming like mewithoutYou's Aaron Weiss. The band wasn't mewithoutYou, though. This sounded meaner and nastier...and epic in a different sort of way. This was heavy, cerebral music, building up to a huge catharsis, and a song-closing riff that could tear the Earth in half.
I called into the station to ask who I was listening to, and the KLSU DJ told me "These Arms Are Snakes." I'd usually write down band's names to help me remember them, but in this case, it wasn't necessary. When I got home, I immediately ordered the band's 2003 debut E.P., This Is Meant to Hurt You. Thankfully, the rest of the E.P. was worthy of "Drinking From the Necks of the Ones You Love" (this band's got some titles), the song I'd heard on the radio. Great dynamics from start to finish, with frenetic, hyperactive sections flowing perfectly into more spaced out, pretty ones. The five-song E.P comes in at 23-minutes, feeling like a complete, and fully realized experience. Best of all, "Drinking From the Necks of the Ones You Love"' is the last song, and its climax also works as the climax for the entire E.P. This Is Meant to Hurt You is about as good an opening statement as it gets.


2003 Jade Tree
1. Riding the Grape Dragon 3:44
2. Run it Through the Dog 5:36
3. Diggers of Ditches Everywhere 3:27
4. The Blue Rose 4:22
5. Drinking From the Necks of the Ones You Love 6:03