Song of the Day: ‘Do You Compute?’ by Drive Like Jehu
Here’s an oldie but a goodie fer you today (isn’t it sad that songs from the ’90s are now oldies?).
Few post-hardcore bands from that vaunted decade of my youth do it for me quite like the relatively short-lived Drive Like Jehu. While some consider DLJ a precursor to emo, you’ll be hard-pressed to hear those roots in modern emo music.
Instead, imagine a band like Fugazi, but with longer, drawn-out compositions, like an orchestral hardcore band with builds and releases, circular melodic cycles and odd-time signatures.
Still, if you listen closely enough you can tie those musical characteristics to bands that came a little later, like Bear Vs. Shark and Bullet Train to Vegas.
If you’re interested in what original emo and post-hardcore sounds like, this is a good starting point (aside from some of the more commonly known forbearers like Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker and the aforementioned Fugazi).
Oh, and an interesting aside, DLJ takes its name from a biblical passage about Jehu in The Book of Kings:
And the watchman told, saying, He came even unto them, and cometh not again: and the driving [is] like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously.