(RockAndMetal.com) (06/03/04)

Edited By Michael Bennett

LOS ANGELES, CA, USA - THE ICARUS LINE are known internationally to be one of the more mysterious, resourceful, driven, and controversial indie bands in recent history.

Released May 4th, the band's new album, "Penance Soiree," has been causing a ruckus from the band's home city of LA to NYC to the UK.

The Icarus Line is a different beast live, however. Lead singer Joe Cardamone admits that the band is an erratic outfit.

"We're not a consistent band. Sometimes it's truly out of control, sometimes it's collected, calm and focused."

"But I think bands that are consistent are boring. It's cool if you can nail it every night, but you've got to have bad nights to have good nights."

The Icarus Line tour non-stop and inexpensively in a van.

After touring with The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Queens Of The Stone Age, ...Trail Of Dead, Andrew W.K., and Cave In, the band members are used to a life of chaos.

The Icarus Line's new album on V2 is called "Penance Soiree" because everyone in the band is too busy doing important shit, like drugs, or slaying hot chicks, to worry about this kind of mundane crap anymore.

In case you didn't get the fucking memo, THEY'RE ON A MAJOR LABEL NOW! Well, sorta.

Is V2 really a major anyway? Technically not.

But anywhoo, somehow this band has clawed its way to the top, or at least the bottom. But they haven't arrived here today without a fight. Hell no!

Pay attention because The Icarus Line's story is quite possibly the best rock 'n' roll story in the making, because rock 'n' roll is mainly about beginnings, about youth and uncertainty and growing through and out of them.

You might say this band has reached manhood in some tribes with this new album. And unlike most bands today, they have what is called a "history," and an interesting one at that.

Over the course of the last five years, The Icarus Line have made quite a name for themselves as one of the most controversial, progressive, sensory provoking, and extremely hardworking bands around.

By the time they had even become The Icarus Line, they had already spent their high school years in shitty vans to play shitty shitholes.

I know, 'cause I was one of the shitty kids who saw them at one of those shitholes when they played my hometown in Idaho at some coffee shop about seven years ago.

Their band then was called Kankersores, which ended when their drummer and close friend died in a car accident.

The Icarus Line played their first show in New Jersey in 1998, after they had driven from Los Angeles to the east coast in Aaron's pickup truck, to meet up with a band called Ink & Dagger and follow them around the country in the truck on tour.

Coincidentally, the guy in Ink & Dagger who got suckered into taking the unknown band on tour who had never played a show yet, and would have to borrow his band's equipment every night, was Don Devore, who is now the bass player for The Icarus Line.

The band quickly released a handful of singles on various independent labels (Hellcat, NewAmericanDream, Crank!) and then at the unanimous age of 21, put out their first album, "Mono," on their own label (Buddyhead).

It soon received critical acclaim by numerous rock publications, as well as being embraced by legendary BBC DJ John Peel.

A slew of recording sessions for Peel and Radio 1 shows followed, as well as two years of steady touring that took the band to all corners of the globe.

They played Reading, Leeds, Roskilde, and the Summersonic festivals - just to name a few. At the end of what turned out to be a two-year tour, The Icarus Line was at a crossroads.

They fired their manager, booking agent, lawyer, and rhythm section all at once, and when record labels showed interest in the band, they replied with their latest demo which consisted of a 12-minute long song.

The suits concluded that these guys were too weird to make any money off of, and the band made plans to release their next album on their own once again.

That is, until the people at V2 showed interest in the chaps, and let it be known that the group could do things their own way, and on their own terms at V2.

So documents were signed, souls were sold, and the group entered various studios in the Los Angeles area to self produce their sophomore effort (with a little help from their engineer friend Mike Mussmano).

The band finished recording the album this past summer in London, and then mixed the fucker down with Alan Moulder (My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, etc.).

Like most originals, The Icarus Line have endured more than their share of abuse, derision, critical condescension and even outright hostility.

Nay sayers mouths have been filled with their feet once having heard "Penance Soiree."

Have you been longing for a band to come along that encompasses everything that rock 'n' roll was originally about?

All that cool shit you read about in Mojo, you know, danger, excitement, tour, tour, tour, sex, drugs, & rock 'n' roll?

Well, look no further. I've witnessed the consequences firsthand of The Icarus Line being pushed to the breaking point.

Meltdowns (always commonly on the road) include being chased out of town (literally) by angry promoters, fistfights with soundmen and crew members, arrests, being sued, entire back-lines and stages destroyed, and guitar cases containing Stevie Ray Vaughn's guitar being smashed open (it seemed inappropriate for such a pretty guitar not to be used).

The consequences of the last instance included multiple death threats. Turns out Texans love Stevie. But let's not paint such a grim picture.

These boys enjoy themselves on the road as well, even if their laugh is at the expense of others (for some reason, spray painting other band's tour busses gets their rocks off the most).

A leer seems to lurk behind every word on "Penance Soiree" that vocalist Joe Cardamone sings, spits, or screams into his microphone as if with a scowling surreptitious pleasure, like some weird kid gang leader phoning in the details of the next job to his army of thugs.

And if you don't watch out you just might get hit with his swinging mic, or maybe a slashing guitar that seems to jet into the audience ever so haphazardly.

Jagged, crunching, erratic, but rhythmically right every second of the way is the rest of the band: Aaron North, Alvin DeGuzman, Don Devore, and Jeff "The Captain" Watson.

BE WARNED: The Icarus line are able to meet any audience on it's own terms, no matter what charming devilish bullshit the crowd might think up.

They'd like to fuck you up and blow you to the back of the room, all while doing their street-strutting Jaggerisms.

Members of the band often enter the audience to see exactly what's what, and even from the stage, their piercing red smeared eyes reach out searchingly through the onlookers, sweeping the joint and singling out hecklers.

Hey there, you in the crowd, this is your stage as well as theirs, and if you can take it away from them, well, fuck buddy, you're welcome to it!

But good luck because the kings of the motherfucking mountain must maintain the pace, as well as the authority, and few can.

In this sense, The Icarus Line are of the rarest kind. They have won the stage, and nothing but the force of their own presence entitles them to it.

This world traveling act is wide open. Do your worst, falsify The Icarus Line! It's your night pal! "Man I could get up there and cut that shit."

Well, here's your chance, but there's no takers.

People stare and gawk, and at most crowd the front of the stage even though it's danger in the front row. This ain't like watching monkeys take shits at the zoo kids, and these aren't caged animals.

Approach at your own risk, for there is always the chance of having a limb or an organ picked at in the shuffle of it all.

Yeah, it's safe to say that this band will scare the shit out of your mom.

The Icarus Line's sound isn't one of a punk band in the classic sense, yet at times it feels like they are the only punk band left.

You might say their ethos, sense of integrity, confrontational nature of their performances, and their belief in what they do is very punk rock.

They sound like what dangerous rock music should sound like in 2004, and are here to fill the void created by nu-metal, mall-emo, jock-punk, frat guy rock, and teeny-weenie bopper dance music.

Most bands are soporifically lazy these days, and that's why The Icarus Line and any other band that challenges their audience, are the answer we've been looking for.

And in case you don't know anything about music, but it's your job to review their new album (which is usually the case with "music journalists" these days), here's some influences you can drop into your review to make yourself look smarter:

The Stooges, Black Flag, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Born Against, Led Zeppelin, The Jesus Lizard, Mudhoney, Black Sabbath, The Velvet Underground, Billy Childish, The Birthday Party, My Bloody Valentine, Funkadelic, Spacemen 3, The Stone Roses, The Rolling Stones, The Wipers, Suicide, Joy Division, The Who, Tones On Tail, Guns N' Roses, Gram Parsons and Primal Scream, just to name a few.

Let's put it this way, if good rock 'n' roll was a steamroller they'd be lying under it, and me too.

I know because I've seen their record collections.

All five members of The Icarus Line live in Los Angeles, Hollywood district. If you ask The Icarus Line just exactly who they think will relate with their songs on "Penance Soiree," they'd reply with, "losers, drug addicts, high school dropouts, freaks, and fuck ups."

Perfect. In closing The Icarus Line are the best rock 'n' roll band in the entire world right now and no one reads this far anyways.

Rock 'N' Roll is better than politics, it's better than sports, it's better than high school, it's better than college, it's better than your slave driving job you hate, it's better than money, fuck, it's better than drugs, and I'll go as far as saying it's even better than sex.

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