Archers of Loaf
In the tradition’s standard formula the singer alternates fast and basic rock ‘n’ roll raves with tunes so melodic you can hum along the first time you hear them. The band’s job is to send these vocals tumbling into a current of anarchic guitars, alternating the tidal waves of brittle leads and distorted chords with occasional respites of sweet counterpoint so you can gulp some air. When executed well these layered contrasts can work each other into a pitch of frenzied excitement. And no one in years has executed that tradition better than these four earnest young losers out of North Carolina. Except, on occasion, those five or six snide young losers out of Southern California called Pavement, to whom the Archers are most frequently compared.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The Archers, though, already attract a more diverse crowd than the Replacements ever assembled in one barroom, and they demonstrate a will to hold their audience together that the Replacements never sought. Moreover, they can pull a crowd back together with their loose and hard energy even when that audience threatens to break apart from internal tension, as it did at a recent show I caught (where a few skinhead thugs were looking for a fight). Positive, uncompromising, realistic–they might not be the future of rock ‘n’ roll, but maybe they should be.
