In August 1989, Enix released a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System called “Dragon Warrior.” Some 20 years later Hauksness formed, taking their name from the obliterated town-turned-monsters’-den found on the west end of the game’s map. The town in question was once a thriving city until the Dragonlord’s evil minions infiltrated it and laid it to waste. This metaphor rings true in Hauksness as well—mild mannered instruments and band members invaded by monsters and corrupted beyond recognition.
But the poetry doesn’t stop there—”Dragon Warrior,” a return to simpler times in which dragons and other beasties straight out of medieval lore roamed the globe, is a metaphor for Hauksness’ stylistic aesthetic as well.
Hauksness plays screaming, blistering early-to-mid-’90s Gravity Records-style emo. Before you get really bummed out that I mentioned “the E-word,” let me give you a bit of a history lesson.
Emo wasn’t always the lamest genre of music. Back in 1984, a band called Rites of Spring got together, and one year later released “End on End,” a record which would come to define the “emo sound,” which would later become the “DC sound,” so named because of Dischord Records’ propensity for signing such bands following RoS. Embrace, Fire Party, and later on Jawbox. The DC sound became synonymous with noisy, dissonant punk rock with emotive yelling and screaming, drowning in cacophonous feedback.
Later on, the DC sound would witness a transformation in a far-away land: San Diego. Like Washington, D.C., the “San Diego sound” became attached to one label: Gravity Records. Bands like Heroin, Antioch Arrow and Angel Hair (especially the latter two—Heroin was more of a punk rock band) came to embody the San Diego sound. If you ever hear someone refer to old emo as “Gravity emo,” now you have a point of reference.
Further on down the line, bands like Saetia, The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower and Racebannon would build on the San Diego sound, albeit in two totally different ways. The genre has split. This brings us to Hauksness.
Hauksness plays a style of music best described as a mix of both “sounds,” namely Antioch Arrow and Rites of Spring, with a tad of Racebannon or even Breather Resist tossed in. That is to say, Hauksness plays screamy noisy punk rock—the good kind that people just don’t make anymore. They play the kind of music that people these days are scared to make, the kind that spills beer all over everyone and gets kicked out of venues forever. That said, let’s hope they don’t kicked out of any place, but we can always wish.
If loud and noisy is your game, check out Hauksness on Myspace to give you a good idea of their game. All the tracks are recorded live—and the between-song banter is at a significantly lower volume than the music—moreso than you’d expect. The recording volume on these tracks is exactly what you get from Hauksness: insanity at exponential decibel levels. Get into it.
Flesh Lawn, Hauksness, Invivo
Twilight Bar and Café
Thursday, February 10
9 p.m.
$3
21+