TurnDownService - Live Drunken Unicorn - 11-05-11

Label: Bootleg
Year: 2011

In case you weren't paying attention to my more self-indulgent posts of the past week or so, the ones pimping an upcoming performance, then you might have missed references to this band. If that's the case....well, then frankly you're an asshole. But maybe you've just been busy, or out of town or something and missed them.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt...this time.
So, TurnDownService is a band in Atlanta that plays infrequently to say the least. Their internet presence is minimal, and they don't make a big stink about what they're up to. Mysterious, yes?
For those music nerds who have kept up with Atlanta post-hardcore since the early 90's then TurnDownService is a real treasure trove of musical wealth and history. Their membership spans the best of what Atlanta had to offer: Fiddlehead, Freemasonry, Haricot Vert, Galanas Cerdd:, and on and on. The kinds of bands that when you think back on, you have to scratch your head (because you have dandruff, not because it helps you think) and wonder, "how the fuck were those bands not huge?".
So, TurnDownService takes all that they've learned over their years crafting precision math rock, and sweeping post-hardcore, and delivers you a seamless set of songs that hearken back to your favorite era of music, while fine-tuning the musicianship to perfection. They are a staggeringly good band, but unfortunately they will continue along doing their thing oblivious to and unfazed by the machinations of the "music industry", and thusly, won't get too far outside the city limits.
Luckily for us, they opened up the show last Saturday night, and double lucky, James Joyce was smart enough to record their set and share it. They broke a bass string one song in, but pick up steam quickly thereafter.
Also, sidebar: sounds like Geoey Cook the singer in Fiddlehead will soon be singing in TurnDownService. Fucking righteous.

DL