I grew up in Maine during the 80s. At this time, cable was still "new" to us. Like those running water jokes, you know? At my house, we eventually got cable. My brother and I would watch MTV as much as possible. It was perhaps the coolest thing we had ever seen on TV. Of course, my parents hated it. I think they caught that Great White video, Once Bit And Twice Shy and forbid us to watch that channel ever again. Or maybe it was that Warrant song ... Of course, that made us want to watch it more. We set up a system where one would person would sit in the kitchen on a stool partially watching out the front door for our parents. We were schemers!

We devoured 120 minutes and headbangers ball. But to me, I always wanted to see those Faith No More or Bad Brains videos. I hated metal. Metal meant nothing to me. It felt like a bunch of guys in skinny leather pants pretending to be scary. That sucks. There's no message there -- THE MUSIC, THE MESSAGE. But then there were punk rock bands with an actual message. That spoke to me. Even if there bay area attitude held no sway over my New England environment. I just recall thinking, "my parents could be home at any minute. Stop showing metal videos." My pleas were often unheard and I would have to suffer through a few Judas Priest videos before getting to something good.

Swamp Thing isn't Judas Priest. They also aren't Rancid. The music has that heavy hardcore vibe: some double kick, a few breaks, lots of heavy. The singing is what made me recall my youth. I can't understand a god damn word this dude is singing. Not one word. He has that scratchy, metal vocalist yell. What's his message? No idea. I lump it in with the "we're singing about hell and demons and goo." Since they aren't a metal band, I'm guessing that's not what they are about really. But I'm guessing the imagery is just as ephemeral.

If you are looking for finger pointing and stage dives, keep looking. This band has more hard mosh and heavy sing-alongs. I can see some hard pitting for this band. Go ahead and check out 6131 Records for the record and merch. If that's not enough to satisfy you, peep Ebay for that limited edition gear.

4 Comments:

 Colin Bayer said...

cable was new to you in the 80s!? my parents still physically cannot get it!

3/27/2009 09:50:00 AM  

 hows yr edge said...

They must get the "do you have running water" joke all the time.

Getting cable was cool. "The Comedy Channel" was a god send.

3/27/2009 09:55:00 AM  

 Anonymous said...

read their lyrics. theyre really worthwhile

5/07/2009 01:54:00 AM  

 Anonymous said...

Great live show

10/14/2009 11:12:00 PM  

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Clear Sight has an obvious angle. They have definitely grabbed onto a theme and are running with it. In this case, that image is Straight Ahead. They take it and go, go go. The sound pulls a lot from Straight Ahead -- plenty of the vocal styling and guitar techniques, for sure.

But here's the thing. Those are big shoes to fill. I mean, c'mon. STRAIGHT AHEAD. Shit. They are a Tier Zero band. It's hard to reach those heights. These guys do a good job of getting there, but there are a few mishaps. The worst of which happens to be their Straight Ahead cover, oddly enough. The recording is odd, real odd. It sounds like it was recorded in a karaoke bar where the vocals are processed through a video game mixer. Like I said, very, very weird. Music is spot on, vocals are off. I guess I'm just down on re-recorded songs.



These boys are from Kiev. That'd be in the Ukraine. For those still living in the 80s or 90s, that'd be the USSR. Good luck catching these guys. Hopefully, they start touring Europe and the US. Dudes would be into that, I'm sure. Until then, hit up IDM Demo Tapes to snag the tunes. Failing that, hit up Ebay.

2 Comments:

 www.vinyledge.com said...

To my (and not only) regret Clearsight doesn't exist anymore. I'm glad to read review here. Nice one even I can't agree with your opinion :)

You can check an interview with Clearsight -> http://vinyledge.com/?p=14

Brian, would you send me your address cuz I want to ship two records to you. Hit me up on xdanchox@vinyledge.com

Thanks

3/05/2009 05:30:00 AM  

 Anonymous said...

I'm from Ukraine and I'm telling you, Clearsight was really really good. unfortunately, shit happens and these guys aren't a band anymore. It's really exciting to find the information about the ukrainian band on the US webpage. thanks a lot.

3/06/2009 06:23:00 AM  

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Rearranged hail from the great white north. North of Turkey, that is. This demo traveled many miles to find its way to my tape deck. Thankfully, the trip was worth it, and it's on heavy rotation.

Listening to this, I hear lots of influences from California. Mostly Insted. Some Uniform Choice. Then the song Letter To A Friend came on and I had to check if it was a Youth Of Today cover song. It's good, real good.



The demo I received is numbered. I think it's either 19/100 or 49/100. I can't really tell. The first digit looks like an upside down 4. I'm going with it being a real fancy 4. 49/100. It is specially branded with the I Drink Milk Fanzine logos. I'm guessing the two came together on purpose. After some digging, I found that to be true (IDM Demo Tapes). Peep later reviews for the zine review ...

If you aren't lucky enough to live in Russia, you can download the demo via the MySpace page. You should also order it pressed onto vinyl, courtesy of Brainwreck Records. And if none of that suits your fancy, there is always Ebay. But don't delay. Pick this up!

1 Comments:

 Emil said...

Just ordered this and the Clearsight tapes from IDM the other day. Cool this is getting out there.

RAY is another decent band from Russia.
http://www.myspace.com/rayisalive

3/26/2009 08:45:00 PM  

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