Communion - AnythingForYou

Label: self released

Year: 2016

As a much more innocent, sweet, and handsome young man, my youth was spent searching and consuming anything even tangentially related to skateboarding. Which, in the free-wheelin' 1980s, was a full time job. Now, in my advanced age, I am more likely to stare wistfully at the halfpipe in my backyard than I am to actually mount the ole girl and give her a thrill. The decline is real.

Back in those days, I was turned on to a lot a great music via some of the skateboard videos that were coming out. SST Records, in their infinite wisdom, was smart enough to partner with NHS and some of the other distributors to license their music into those video parts. So all the rad Santa Cruz videos, the weird Ohio Skateout, and Streetstyle in Tempe type videos, had killer soundtracks of Black Flag, B'last!, fIREHOSE, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Angst, Minutemen....all that. There was some Eric Grisham video that I think Sure Grip put out, that was essentially the TSOL 'Change Today' album in its entirety. It was awesome! Point being, those videos got me hip to some great music. And I'm certain that young skateboard enthusiasts of every generation are turned on to new tunes and bands via the videos they watch. 

Sadly, I still watch skate videos online, with an alarming frequency. But, it's fewer and further between that one will have a song that gets my attention and makes me seek out the artist. Just yesterday though, I was checking out the new Fancy Lad 'Secrets Of The Clown Box' video (find it on Thrasher if you're so inclined), and wouldn't you know it, but the first part of the video comes straight out of the gate with a tune that grabbed me by my lapel (it was after 6:00pm, so naturally I was wearing a purple velvet smoking jacket), and made me forward to the end of the video to see who was responsible for such a glorious racket!

Turns out, the band was Communion, and the song was "Anything For You", off their self-released cassette (100 pressed...ugh) 'AnythingForYou' (or 'Anything 4 U'). The song was like an an acid fried slow motion freakout. Like, if Butthole Surfers were tasked with covering a Jimi Hendrix song, and they never quite figured out the main riff, but were basically, "fuck it, this works", and then go on to make a squall of overdrive and noise over what is essentially a "feel good" tune. It obviously got me going, cause here we are.

I tried to do some research into who or what exactly the band Communion are (were?), but beyond a Bandcamp there isn't much to go on. They are (were?) from Chicago. They appear to be (have been?) a four piece. And they have four releases you can listen to. Nothing after 2017, so maybe they are gone? 

Some of the other records are a little more straight forward, kinda shouty/punky, but they are all "weird". I like the one linked here the best, as it is the loudest and meanest. But by all means, rifle through them all. And if you have any info on the band, please pass it along.

DL