At the height of late '90s, early '00s indie rock, the era and scene that birthed monumental bands (well, monumental to me at least) like the Promise Ring, the Get Up Kids, Mineral, Sunny Day Earl Estate, Joan of Arc, and Braid, there was this strange band from Boston called Karate that was kinda jazzy, with guitar solos (LONG guitar solos) and extended improvisations, and a vocalist prone to spoken word passages. I remember being at house party in college with a bunch of hip kids who wore really tight clothes and read really cool books and knew all about art and listened to really great records and we smoked really great pot and listened this strange band called Karate.
That memory is probably more romantic than reality, but listening to Karate for the first time in years the other day I realized (or remembered) that Karate is still amazing and oddly still ahead of their time.
Some Boots is Karate's 5th album, release in 2002 on Southern Records. Sharing two tracks here, "Original Spies" and "South." The latter is all accentual percussion and Jeff Buckley-esque poetry from frontman Geoff Farina. "Original Spies" certainly resembles music from Karate contemporaries like Braid and Cap'n Jazz but is decidedly different (instead of the usual 3 or 4 minutes, "Spies" clocks in at almost 7 minutes... and is that a drum solo at the 4 minute mark????)
You pull out a record like this and inevitably think, "What happened to these guys?!" The last Karate record came out in 2007 on Southern, a live album recorded in 2005 and titled 595. Haven't heard that one. These days, Farina fronts a band called Glorytellers, and is other-wise an amazing person to read about, involving himself in music and art at just about every level.
1. Original Spies
2. First Release
3. Ice or Ground?
4. South
5. In Hundreds
6. Airport
7. Baby Teeth
8. Corduroy
9. Remain Relaxed
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