LAST TIME ON "UNINTERESTING INTRODUCTORY RANT": Steve revealed to the world with startling aplomb the nature of his shocking new diet - one that could only be described as ovo-lacto vegetarian. The curtness of his reveal sent readers reeling, relationships into turmoil, and made the world step back and rethink their stance on eating the flesh of the innocent. Now the chronicles of this descent into slightly more livestock friendly dietary restrictions continues on today's gripping episode of "Uninteresting Introductory Rant"...I made a portabella burger today with guacamole and cooked spinach with a side of sauteed tofu and red bell peppers. It was pretty yummy, especially with the white wine and sage, but I feel like the tofu could've used more time to brown. Not a big deal, though.
Constatine Sankathi - and sometimes Sankati Cunstatine, Constatine (Anima) Sankathi, and Constantine Sankathi - were a short lived second wave emo band from Chicago, IL (I think) who existed from the spring of '94 to the summer of '96. Over the course of their brief existence, they were made up of not only 5 central band members, but apparently about 15 or 16 part timers who contributed vocals, instruments, and whatever else. That's what I was able to gather from the lengthy photocopied booklet contained in their discography CD, Fucked In The Head, anyway. I guess it's not a crucial bit of info since they never exactly really go all Pet Sounds on us with a menagerie of instruments, but I thought it was kinda cool that they were such a community-friendly band. The awkwardly heartfelt retrospectives of each band member and contributor contained in the booklet definitely help to back up that idea, too, but I'm way too lazy to start scanning pages. Also, we're not discussing their discography, anyway, just this widdle 3 song 7" in the lefthand corner.
If you didn't guess, Constatine Sankathi were yet another emo band I "dug" (as the youth say) during my transition from the bleak and brutal side of music to the introspective and mopey. Like the best of the lot, these guys had an idiosyncratic sound few others captured, but still managed to fit snuggly under the emo banner. As you might expect from a band that existed for a little over 2 years, they weren't exactly prolific; Who Killed The Killed Kid is the only other standalone release besides the ridiculously titled Baby Unicorn Tripped Over A Rock And Hurt It's Throat And Then Vomited EP, but accompanied by a split with Bev. Clone and a bunch of compilation tracks (I guess). I know this makes it seem stupid to not just cover their discography CD instead, but really, listening to all 60 minutes in one sitting is pretty fucking exhausting, and come on, what band really intended their music to be digested like that?*
Who Killed The Killed Kid is 3 tracks in a little under 10 minutes, but perfectly sums up what an unusual and interesting sound these guys had. I'm not honestly sure what's supposed to be the A or B side of this EP; one side has a doodle of a bunny on it and the other has a nondescript shape in a black box. I always listened to the side with "I'm An Android" first - side Bunny - so let's assume their lack of punctuality means they didn't really give a shit. This is the track that really got me into these guys: it starts off with feedback murk before someone remembers to start a really, really urgent riff with drums rat-a-tat'ing and what might be one or two different vocalists screeching behind the lead vocal dude. The hook here is really fucking cool, with a trumpet stopping the first riff dead in it's tracks and leading into the chorus. I could keep describing it, I guess, but you may as well just listen to it instead. It's just a really great song, all around. The other two aren't quite as weird or catchy, but they're both just as high quality. "Thanks For The Candy" starts off really aggressive, than goes into this weird lilt with the murmuring trumpet swaying along, concluding in another wave of cathartic aggression. "Husniyah" is structured more like you'd expect a song of this style to be, but with a screaming, punchy, chorus-esque part in the middle that eventually leads back to the clean guitars it opened with. Try it out, then find the rest of their stuff:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ym308atd2cu68jy*If you were wondering how they fit an hour of music onto two 7"s and one 4 minute split, well, they didn't. There are eleven tracks on the discography CD that I've never been able to trace to any compilation, so your guess is as good as mine.
hello..these gents were from kalamazoo michigan.
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