Cave In - God City Demos

Label: Bootleg
Year: 2001

Long time, no see. Sorry about that, but...you know...stuff.

Back to blogging (has a a worse sentence ever been uttered?), and coming in hot with potentially controversial pick. Controversial only in the sense that nerds might either deride any Cave In that isn't the Slayer-spazz Converge first version of the band, or nerds who deride Cave In as a band only knuckle heads would love, or nerds who are simply nerds, but not in a "good nerd" way. You know the type.
Myself (absolutely not a nerd, in any way. Ask anybody, they'll tell you), I was not a fan of Cave In in their original incarnation. Just not my cup of tea (I'm very refined). It wasn't until they came through San Diego in 1999 with Isis, who I wanted to see, that I heard the second version of Cave In. The 'Creative Eclipses' version, and on that night it clicked. It was still heavy, but no longer relied on throwing a million heavy metal riffs at the wall. There was space involved. Atmosphere and tension and a more nuanced song writing. That 'Creative Eclipses' 7" stayed in pretty heavy rotation until the 'Jupiter' album came out, and then that one took over the stereo. I was even on board with all the side projects, I was in to the entire thing. I still think Stephen Brodsky is an immensely talented musician, and I applaud that he is willing to stretch out and take risks (and I'm sure he appreciates me saying so).
Well, then Cave In did "the unthinkable" and signed to a major label (a weird one at that...RCA? Who does that?), and released 'Antenna', a record that didn't have the immediate hooks or appeal it's predecessor did. It felt flat. At least at first.
But, given time, I've gone back to that record a lot over the years and have found a lot that I like about it, the balance of big rock swings with the Failure influenced space-pop. It's good.
The songs being shared here are demo versions of some of those Antenna tracks, but being recorded at God City with Kurt Ballou means there is nothing "demo" about them. They sound phenomenal. Big, warm, and rich. The other tracks are versions of songs that wound up on the 'Tides Of Tomorrow' and 'Epicenter' eps, And a Nirvana cover for whatever reason.

If you like rock music...

Members on this record were also involved in: Old Man Gloom, Zozobra, Pet Genius, Doomriders, Goatsnake (for a minute), Nomad Stones, 27, Kid Kilowatt, Clouds, New Idea Society, and Mutoid Man.

*originally posted 03.01.17, reposted 11.21.21

DL