My Mind – Path Masher 7″

My Mind
Path Masher 7″
Badmaster Records

Once upon a time in the land of Philadelphia, there was a band called Eat Forever. Eat Forever played a frenzy of loud, melodic, ADD-fueled pop songs with abrupt endings and surrealistic lyrical undertones.

Back in 2005 or 2006, they played a show in my old house’s tiny basement and afterwards, smitten by their deafening awesomeness, I asked Mr. Tim Westberg from the group if he could give our webzine a promotional copy of one of their releases to review. When I was going to shows back then, this was a frequent question I’d ask musicians. The sane answers that I’d get in reply would usually range somewhere between “Yeah, sure” and “No asshole, you need to fucking pay for that!!!” (Fair enough.) Tim’s response was much more illusive. He made it clear he was excited to have us write up a review of Eat Forever’s music, but at the time Eat Forever didn’t actually have any official releases for us to write about. His solution to this apparent quandary was to make me a fucking crazy, rough-as-shit burned cd of songs they were thinking about using for an ep (as a bonus, he also tossed in a handful of his solo experiments on 3″ cds with full artwork).

I was hardly a stranger to thrown together DIY recordings, but this Eat Forever pseudo-promo was a real kick in the butt. The whole thing was comprised of thirty-six rough mixes of only about seven or eight distinct songs played in a different random order over and over again. Some of them were decently recorded, some were totally fuzzed out or taken straight from from practice recordings. I didn’t even have a track list to help me sort out song titles or anything.

For almost any other band, I feel like this kind of confusing, completely unedited vomiting of raw material would be nearly impossible to sit through, let alone review. For Eat Forever, it strangely worked. The shit was just so catchy, so quick, so energetic, so careening from one idea to the next that it didn’t phase me to listen to a distorted third or forth out-take of the same song I’d heard just a few minutes ago. And since Eat Forever songs were inevitably written to leave you wanting more, the extreme repetition proved to be a really satisfying way to listen to the material. All in all, it was a fine introduction to a fine Philly band.

Flash forward to 2010, and much of what was Eat Forever has morphed into My Mind. Now, instead of finding myself trying to intelligently review a sprawling heap of unfinished proto-songs, I’m faced with Path Masher—a totally together, totally tight, ten minute monster of a 7″ that plays like a fucking LP.

It’s pretty clear on Path Masher that Tim and the rest of the EF holdovers in My Mind haven’t given up their old ways. Just like on the Eat Forever recordings, almost all of the eleven songs on this 7″ are well under the one minute mark. Just like before, all the songs start and stop on a dime, pull you in with sweet melodies, rile you up, and cut out just when you feel like the chorus should cut in. The opening song “Be A Fascist To A Fascist” is even straight up Eat Forever-era material—an updated version of a song that had made it onto the original burned promo they gave me years and years ago.

But as conceptually true as My Mind is to much of the old Eat Forever schtick, Path Masher definitely isn’t a simple regurgitation of old formulas. The most impressive part of this 7″ for me isn’t how much it sounds an old band I used to like, it’s how much they are able to break new ground and take the music to the next level. While Eat Forever was more bound up in the spastic gesticulations of their psyche-pop punk oeuvre, My Mind’s pop stylings are somewhat cleaner and more expansive—on Path Masher they seem more willing to slow things down, making it easier to pick out discernible notes of The Zombies or inflections of old Elephant 6 bands in their brief compositions. Despite their self-imposed limitations around length and pacing, My Mind seems to constantly push the envelope to find new ways to bust out razor sharp song-writing that makes its point in less than sixty seconds flat.

Jam-packed with compellingly innovative tunes, Path Masher is about as full a meal as you’re going to get on a 7″ record. It’s a special thing to come across music that is as provocative as it is catchy, and so I absolutely recommend this release as an entry point into the work of a band making important music here in Philly.

While I believe this 7″ may presently be out of print, you can still check it out via this My Mind-related blogspot. (This site also features most of the Eat Forever discography, some of Tim’s solo projects, and a bunch of other really solid music for your downloading pleasure.)

eat forever // tracks to be maybe used for a single

Eat Forever
tracks to be maybe used for a single
self-released

After finding out that my former webzine Deep Fry Bonanza was going to shut down, I remember how much apprehension I had about the prospect of going it alone and stringing together a new webzine out of next to nothing. When it shut down, DFB had been going strong for about a half-decade and as such had acquired quite a sizeable base of decent-to-fucking-amazing record labels who’d constantly cram their wares down our collective throats. Starting from scratch, I’ve never had any illusions that this here webzine might have a tough time making it on just about anybody’s list, and that rather than the deluge of promos that essentially drowned DFB, we might be hard pressed to even amass a steady trickle.

But as the old saying goes, when life gives you lemons, chuck them at the rock aristocracy! While I may secretly look forward to the day when ARTNOISE beats out as Spin as the most widely read soulless alt-rock journal in creation, it’s definitely been a source of pride for me to see just how many of the reviews on this site are from “self-released” bands and artists. Though the DIY scene has by and large matured past the point where there’s a strict choice between being known and staying true to your craft, there will always be something to said about music made strictly for the love of music (heck, if it weren’t for that ethos this site wouldn’t be here and I’d have a fair bit more money and free time). Releases in this vein may be pretty rough around the edges—lacking much in the way of packaging or recording quality—but who can seriously deny the thrill of picking up a crappily thrown together CDR and having it become one the best things in your collection?

Just take this demo passed on to me by Tim from Eat Forever. There’s no question that in aesthetic terms this disc is a huge fucking mess: without liners, tracklist or any real packaging, this is clearly just a hasty burn of thirty-six Eat Forever tracks to be used for a later single, the bulk of which are just variations of the same ten or eleven songs recorded live or on 4-track. This CDR actually seemed unruly enough that—in the name of empowered listener participation—I even briefly tried sequencing the tracks together on my computer into something vaguely resembling an album for review on this site (needless to say I never quite got it right).

But in spite of all its rough edges, this disc has totally awakened my eyes to one of the strongest punk acts to emerge in Philadelphia for quite awhile. With their massively enthusiastic delivery, rock solid pop sensibilities and intelligent, super-playful song writing, just about every song Eat Forever puts together turns out to be pure punk rock gold and a beacon of orgiastic hope in my otherwise drab rock critic life. Do you remember that rush you felt the first time you ever listened to The Dickies or The Briefs? Imagine a band with equally addictive amounts of energy and melody, but with enough brains and good taste to hold your interest well after the choruses have lost their initial punch.

Ranging from the bouncy guitar pop of the surrealistic “You Have No Eyes” and “Noah’s Ark” to the less punchy, euphoric rock of “She’s Got Legs,” to the brutal breakdowns of “Sixty Cent Samosas” (or at least I think that’s the title… see aforementioned lack of tracklist) the real constant throughout the wilds of Eat Forever’s repertoire is that their music is exactly what you’d expect from a talented band that’s absolutely in love with what they do. I probably don’t need to tell you that this sort of joi de vivre is a rare blessing in recorded music; if these kids can hold on to that spark they’ll certainly be something to write home about when they put out a more coherent release. In the meantime though, this demo’s certainly worth checking out repeated tracks and all.

Unless Eat Forever does something crazy like break-up or get bored, I highly recomend keeping an eye out for them be it live or on record. There are a lot of profoundly wonderful things in the Philadelphia DIY community but few have gotten me as stoked as this amazing demo and the inredible band behind it. My friends, it just goes to show: sometimes good things do come in small, shoddily made packages.

band website: www.eatforever.com