The Truth
Label: Ascetic
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: The Truth
This is the Expansive Double Album by a Punk Band that I always expected from Jawbox, but never got. Since they hail from Norman, Okla., it can be reasonably assumed that Traindodge have little to do but practice and write songs, and it shows in the 100-plus minutes of music on The Truth Thankfully, this isn’t a Crass-style 100-songs-in-100-minutes double record; Traindodge crams a dozen songs’ worth of ideas into many single tracks, pushing several songs waaay past the three-minute (or five-minute or seven-minute) mark. Yet, being a relatively young band, when it comes to making grand statements, they’re either incapable or unwilling, and that gives The Truth, with all its tempo changes, melodic twists and dense sonic layering, a real visceral energy far removed from prog-rock snobbery. In other words, they’re smart, but they’re also smart enough not to act like it.
This article appears in Sep 29 – Oct 5, 2004.