Golden Mixtape

Approaching midnight, I told myself I’d be asleep by the time the clock struck 12. I lied to myself, and really shouldn’t have. There’s an early rise in my future to get to Pasadena for the Power Ranger Convention (NERD!), but I can’t sleep with the sounds of Indian Taker’s Tule Fog EP still spinning about in my head. It’s a thrashing punk that at first listen might just come across as a bunch of guys with bad attitudes. But I had to approach this EP as if I were a guidance counselor and actually listen to what it had to say instead of just taking what was on the surface….

The face of the record is pissed. You can hear that in every track be in “Owl Eyes” or bonus track “Hope Chest.” “Sleep Spindles” had music that kind of freaked me out. It was ike the music played in a movie where the camera’s panning through a run down, deserted town. Then the track picks up and the action in the scene starts with the main character being badass. You know…Going through the rubbish and getting shit together. There ended up being lyrics, but very few as the music played a long time and the song itself is barely 2 minutes, but one line that stuck out that could play as the made up characters mantra was “I’m sorry for the way that I act, I hate myself more everyday.”

Moving on to the lyrics…Like previously mentioned, you might just bypass this record and not take into account the emotion behind the lines. The lyricist is someone with a lot of weight on their heart and as much pain on their mind.

Yes, every song sung with force and anger but when the words are masked by vocals that are brash…you might miss the story. But looking at the words behind the rage, you get the message loud and clear, even louder than the music that surrounds it. “If the Family Tree Falls and No One’s Around, Does it Make a Sound?”  is the prime example of that. Growing up with an alcoholic myself, I know what it’s like and can definitely sympathize with this song.

When you hear something that’s so abrupt and frenzied, you just jump to conclusions and sometimes might not take the time to get to know what’s behind all of it. So as someone who wants to go back and get her MA to be a high school counselor, I put that cap on and had to listen to Indian Taker’s Tule Fog with that in mind. Never assume you know shit about something based on the surface, you’ll be surprised by what you find when you invest some time. I found songs that I would’ve normally skipped over, and now you can find a new band to add to your iTunes.

Fans of Place Called Home and Pentimento are urged to apply to be Indian Taker’s new fans. Tule Fog was re-released on August 14^th on Quote Your Pulse Records, so get it and listen up!