Better Days Will Haunt You

Better Days Will Haunt You (Matador)

When the liner notes for a comprehensive boxed set have the heads of a record label confessing to having ‘overlookedâ?� the artist, it’s safe to assume that the band in question was, at the very least, ahead of its time. The thing is, at the time in question (the mid-’90s), Chavez seemed to be the biggest band on the planet. With an explosive, straightforward attack tweaked with just enough stop-start, angular noise to make it interesting, the band’s modest output of two albums, an EP and a single emphasized the second word of the ‘math rockâ?� tag they got stuck with. This approach made legions of arms-crossed fanboys remember how to play air guitar; guitarist Clay Tarver’s stint with metallic punks Bullet LaVolta informed the bulk of the group’s blistering riffs, bringing a full-volume fierceness and structured insanity to the proceedings. Ex-Live Skull drummer James Lo was determined that the percussion consist alternately of rolling thunder and on-a-dime changes. Co-guitarist/vocalist/mascot Matt Sweeney (formerly of the madly underrated Skunk and later of the wildly misunderstood Zwan) added raspy vocals and shards of feedback. Bassist Scott Marshall (son of Garry Marshall, who tags a commentary piece to Better Days‘ DVD component) just appeared happy to be along for the ride. This set compiles all of their recorded output onto two CDs and tosses in a DVD of two music videos and the aforementioned commentary. It’s shocking how little Chavez there was to compile and how little of a mark the band left; the collected photos and visual mementos in the set are sadly sparse. Despite drunkenly awesome tours with Guided by Voices and a general agreement among cognoscenti that they were, perhaps, the best new rock band in years, Chavez never achieved the world domination they seemed destined for, and thanks to being ‘overlookedâ?� by their label, these works have been out of print for quite a while. One would hope history ‘ and this boxed set ‘ will redeem them.