| The Red Sparowes are very deliberate in what they do, from the Old English spelling of their name, to their use of symbolism from China’s Great Leap Forward. The rumbling basslines and cascading cymbal crashes of Every Red Heart Shines Toward The Red Sun convey a sense of heaviness not outweighed by the George Bernard Shaw and Edward R. Murrow quotes adorning the inside cover.
Song titles as lengthy as the eight instrumental tracks themselves form a cautionary tale – Chinese peasants are told to kill off the local sparrows to prevent them from eating the harvest, however, once the sparrows are dead, the fields are overrun by locusts that would have otherwise been consumed by the birds. The story is taken from that disastrous period in Chinese history during which Mao’s plans for rapid economic expansion resulted in the deaths of an estimated 30 to 50 million people.
Greg Burns, the drummer for the Los Angeles based group explains, "We really wanted to get across a more subtle philosophy of how people should think. It was more people need to think about the choices that they make. We didn’t want to be obvious – question what your government is doing. We had a big discussion about what the theme of the album should be. Should it be a political album? The concept is strong and I think it’s important but we wouldn’t want the music to be secondary."
Formed in 2005 from members of bands such as Isis and Halifax Pier, the Red Sparowes made a name for themselves touring with bands like the Dillinger Escape Plan and Made Out of Babies. Despite the heavy company, Burns is optimistic their music contains a wider scope, "I listened to a lot of metal, hardcore and punk growing up, but also a lot of the Chicago stuff – we’re a lot more like that – Tortoise and Slint. When we started this band, we ended up playing with these (metal) bands, but we strive to play with bands from outside that genre. One of the nice things about instrumental music is that people take what they want from it. Hopefully we can transcend that – we’re going to play with that in those expectations in the next couple of years."
Questioning expectations is a big part of the Red Sparowes. An enthusiastic reception greeted their first release last year. They also appeared on more radar screens with a series of press releases issued following the closure of New York’s legendary CBGBs. More communiqué or manifesto than simple pre-album promo, the band used them to question contemporary notions of punk and calls for the birth of a new countercultural identity.
Burns explains, "They were not just within the context of Red Sparowes. I grew up listening to my dad’s records, like Rush, the Eagles and Zeppelin. When I began to listen to punk, it became very rigid. It was this kind of esthetic and way of living and treating people. I assumed that people who shared that look and music had those values too. But I eventually found out this wasn’t necessarily true and began to branch out to other music that had that sense of sincerity and community."
Pausing, Burns adds, "You can’t define that by the music, there’s a lot of hardcore bands that have a Black Flag patch that don’t really get it and you can’t talk to them about that. It’s only after you meet them that you can. It’s like you go through this period where everything is so well-defined, it’s a period of naivete, and you need to go beyond that. Moving to L.A. was kind of disillusioning because I found that to be missing, at first.
"There’s no scene here really, but what’s interesting is that there is a community now of people who relate to each other but don’t want to play the same kind of music together. There are people who I like — who don’t feel compelled to dress a certain way – but it makes it hard to put shows on here because it’s a real challenge to get people to accept such different bands together. There are bands that I want to put on a bill together but the fans are like ‘I don’t want to listen to that.’ I enjoy the diversity but I’d like to see people working harder together." |
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