Rites Of Spring - Six Song Demo
Rites Of Spring are one of those 'education' bands. Eventually you will stumble across their eponymous album, maybe after playing every Fugazi record to death, boring yourself with never ending listens of the Minor Threat discography and finding the Evens a little dull. The Rites of Spring self-titled album has long been one of my favourite of all Dischord records I have ever purchased - personally I put it up there with Repeater and the Bluetip records. So, being offered a chance to review their 1984 demo is quite an honour. Sadly I haven't had a chance to see how this one is going to look - but it is apparently a 10" vinyl release and I don't doubt it will look the bollocks.
So, to the songs. Sadly, none of them are songs that didn't end appearing on the album or the subsequent EP. Opener End on End is more sedate than the album version - it has more of a late 70s UK vibe. Which is something that actually underpins the whole thing. Remainder and Persistent Vision aren't vastly different to the album. By Design merely lacks the killer factor of the record. Hain's Point, one of the band's more iconic songs, is interestingly embryonic on here, which is the case for All There Is too - it really documents a band in progress. It's - unsurprisingly really - the sound of a band on their way to being a band.
In all honesty I can't see it being of massive interest to those uninitiated - it's another of those Dischord relics that will be snatched up by the converted. If you don't have the album proper - get that instead - this is more a milking of the cash cow than anything else, even if it is an interesting listen.