Roots, part 4: Love Athena

I was originally going to outline the storied history of BATWÖLF here, but I have opted to end with an article about all the lost bands in one - the ones whose recordings are missing, probably permanently, or never even existed.  So today instead we have what is probably the highlight of this series:  Pudge Athena.

Love Athena's history started off real ugly.  It began one night in the Fall of 2003 when the core trio of The Shears auditioned drummer Peter Cross.  Suspicious something was going on, Alec got a ride over from Sam's mom (which she no longer remembers, if you can believe that) as the four were playing.  We reminded him that he was brought in temporarily and explained we had no intention of ousting him.  Rather we thought a switch to guitar would be beneficial for everyone involved, especially as he has been bringing a guitar to practice each time for quite a while and Sam's interest in keyboards was growing.  After a few songs as a quintet, sounding better than ever before Alex exited in tears and took the name The Shears with him.  It began a dark period between the musicians, but also a new band known as Love Athena.

That was some intense stuff and no fun to write, but that's my side of the story and it always has been.

Most of the practices from then until late Winter were held at Cross's house in Upper Montclair and we came up with a lot of great songs, even as egos were beginning to battle more and more.  We played one show at the Bloomfield Ave. Café in December and another in Alex Dinsmore's garage afterwards.  There was also a show in Sam's basement, but I don't remember if we played.  That night got really dark too.  Really dark.  This was such an awful time, mostly, to be completely honest.

Cross proved to be unreliable and a poor personality match for the band and that spring we brought in classmate Will Floyd on drums.  He was a lot better, not to say Cross was weak, but I can't remember.  I believe it was with him that we recorded the five demos for the planned album Modern Art and the Spaceage Supersuit.

DOWNLOAD:   Love Athena - Modern Art and the Spaceage Supersuit demos (2004)

"A Shot In The Dark" was one of our first forays into synth-heavy arrangements and one of our best songs.  The lyrics, while mostly abstract and at times allegedly ripped off from a friend of Alec's who recorded with Sam are some of the most personal.  Though at a high frequency the synth part is incredibly catchy and moving and make up for some of my goofier moves on the bass.  Aidan's guitar style is defined here and it, along with the steady beat keep this from falling into the then-trendy disco-punk sound.  This is also perhaps the only song from this era with harmonies.

"Autograph" is a rawer and more aggressive take than heard on ¡Swing Pad! and the positively monstrous guitars and heavy drumming make it a superior version in my opinion, to say nothing of the improved vocals, though the clean guitar lead does more to distract than enhance the song.  Luckily, it's pretty low int he mix.

"Morning Glory" also benefits from this rawer performance and production.  Both extended lead guitar and vocals do a lot more for the song as does the faster tempo, which makes it a more fun listen, but less hypnotic than time suggests would have been idea.

"Strawberry Shit" was really something else, and probably the closest thing we came to prog, though 90s indie, funk, and even screamo come into the mix as well... oh and vocoder.  I think there are five-different sections and as weird as this song is it's exciting and definitely the most fun out of these five.  I say this a lot, but there's really nothing else out there like this song at all and you'll need to hear it a lot before you believe it.

Ending this set is "Flying Guillitines" which is another older song that goes back to the days of the Shears, and possibly even Hurtu.  Aidan based the riff off "Stairway to Heaven" if you can believe that.  That Hüsker Dü-esque riff and its accompanying bass line are the charms of this track as the lyrics are more weepy teenage boy stuff in line with The Power of Rawk's "11" and the whole thing gets a little repetitive.  Definitely the sloppiest performance of the five too, but it was always fun to play, probably was cool live too!

The Summer of 2004 slowed things down a bit, but Sam and I kept working on new material with more and more keyboards and dynamics.  Unfortunately, none was ever recorded, but I remember it being some of the finest music I would be involved with making for many, many years.  Ego-related tensions grew and grew until a massive falling out at the end of the Summer.  I went onto Down/B with Jason Paskow, Tim Baumgarten, and Taylor Green, the Hispanics with Tim King, Adriand Ricelli, and Alex Talbot, and then The Tangles with Will Lulofs and Jeff Nazareno before heading out to Boston for school.

NEXT:  Alameda's the Comfy Men.