The Song Fight Bulletin Board

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It should come as no surprise that Milemarker traces its roots back to the influential and amazing Sleepytime Trio. Fans of that band should certainly explore Milemarker's sonic blend of hardcore and hardware. But proceed with caution, for Milemarker is not interested in making you comfortable: they want you to confront some of your darkest fears and most closely held beliefs and reevaluate them.

The band's music defies simple categorization, incorporating elements of loud, angry hardcore with flawless New Wave-style keyboards and a healthy dose of attitude. On their third album, Frigid Forms Sell, Milemarker defies expectation, opening with a 30-second techno track that is utterly befuddling until it breaks into a chunky stream of guitars. In other places on the album, singer Roby Newton bends and folds her voice like a technologized Siouxsie Sioux. Newton's sultriness combines with Dave Laney's raw screaming power to give the songs a grandiose urgency. 

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The Story
Here's what little we do know about Milemarker: They consider themselves a collective as opposed to a band. To boot, they are alternately known as the Milemarker Collective, the Milemarker People's Liberation Army, or the Milemarker Entertainment and Reprogramming Consulate. All of the band's members and ex-members bear identical tattoos of a multi-headed Hydra branded with the inscription "Cut off one head and another three shall grow in its place." And, umm, apparently their live show has inspired more than one case of self-immolation.

Okay. Whatever the case, Milemarker have executed three albums for the cause; the last of which - an angular and future-rhythmic venture called Frigid Forms Sell for the D.C.-based Lovitt Records - was as inspiring a rock record as any of the classic revolution songs. And let's face it: records carrying a forward-thinking musical intuition and an atypical approach to political lyricism just don't come along like this every day.

Milemarker's first release full length for Jade Tree, Anaesthetic, ignites further speculation on their high profile ambiguity before lending credence to anarchist author Emma Goldman and the subversive mantra she coined several years ago: "It's not my revolution if you can't dance to it."

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Entitled Satanic Versus, the record is all about conflict. For instance, analog vs. digital: half the record was recorded by 2-inch tape purist Steve Albini(watching him fearlessly splice your tape with a razor blade is pretty amazing) and the other half was recorded by Milemarker with the ironically name pro tools computer program. The old vs. the new, technology vs. ancient tradition, new world order vs. fundementalism-- this seems to be shaping up to be the defining battle of the 21st Century. The record is about 34 minutes long, and was released on vinyl by czech label Day after Records, and CD by Jade Tree.