Season To Risk Mine Eyes B/W Why See Straight Columbia/Red Decibel 1993

Season To Risk Mine Eyes B/W Why See Straight Columbia/Red Decibel 1993 CAT# CS7 74888

Somewhere in the late-70's 45s became terribly boring and featured songs that were available on a full-length LP. Both tracks featured here were on Season To Risk's self-titled debut. While a 45 is cool for the completest, this isn't that necessary.

Both songs sound angry and dated today. There's that Jesus Lizard megaphone singing, which in 93' was still kind of cool, now it just sounds cliche. Letting "Why See Straight" stand by itself is kind of fun, though. There's some cool moments and ideas, the band gets a little lighter on the chorus harmony, showing they weren't always so metal about everything. "Mine Eyes" was an attempt at a single, it played around here. Sure it got love in other spots, but again, sounds dated now-a-days.

Mine Eyes

Season To Risk Self Titled Big Money Inc./Red Decibel/Columbia 1993

Season To Risk Self Titled Red Decibel/Columbia 1992, 1993 CAT# BMI 040

Re-listening and looking back, this LP hasn't aged well. From the ironic artwork to the trendy metal production styles, it just reeks of the early 90's. But, sometimes nostalgia is great. The memories that surround this moment in Kansas City music history for outweigh it's dated style.

The album is a bruiser, though. It's aggressive and mean. It's angry and loud. It's been stated here before, but at the end of the day, it's a shame this brand of post-hardcore with heavy metal aspects didn't beat out bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit to dominate the teenage aggression scene. Season to Risk is far more intelligent and were far better musicians. They just came on the scene a bit too early, the kids that would have been prime for this hadn't gotten to age where they would now how to handle this.

The album doesn't lack highlights. "Mine Eyes" was a solid single. The final song on the LP, "Reminder," is a great example of the band's aggressive style. "Why See Straight" is also a bruiser. The song "Scorched" has some nifty guitar work and is a fantastic take on noise rock. The rest comes in moments, there are times when they stay in places that contemporaries like Failure, Handsome and even the legendary Jesus Lizard perfected, but Season to Risk end up getting too heavy metal. They use a megaphone to sing through a lot which is a nice 90's effect, but it does wear thin. Overall, it's worth it for the memories, if you heard it as a teenager, you'll want to grab a skateboard or go jump stairs on in-line skates, whatever your extreme sport was in the early 90's.

Reminder

Season To Risk In A Perfect World Sony/Red Decibel 1995

Season To Risk In A Perfect World Sony/Red Decibel 1995 CAT#RdB95006

The more I get into this project, the more I realize just how cool KC was in the 1990's.  I've always been in love with the stuff from Lawrence, KS, but the more I look at it, KC in the 90's was where it was at.  Not Charlie Parker Jazz-era cool, but pretty incredible.

Season to Risk were among the leaders of that era.  I always kind of brushed them off as a bit too metal, a bit to jock rock.  But, after digging into them more, they're intelligent, they use odd time signatures, and the only difference between them and their more indie-friendly counterparts, Shiner, is that Season to Risk used a far more aggressive approach.  In the end, the bands shared members, played shows together, and were leading the KC scene together.  People talk about Lawrence and how it was supposed to be the next "Seattle" in the mid-90's.  But, KC trumps the college town and had a more defined sound.

Shiner, Boys Life and Giants Chair are the indie-darlings.  Their sound was a bit artsy, a bit math rock, but still, very distinct post-hardcore sounds.  Season to Risk, Molly McGuire, Clutch, those three all signed to major labels in the 90's.  By default, they tended to be more "commercial" than the others, but their post-hardcore leanings certainly never got them to the top ten.  There were countless other bands doing the same thing, angular guitars, start-stop dynamics, it was a legitimate scene,  these were all recognized touring artists.

Listening to this album, you get what attracted the majors to a band like Season to Risk.  Despite the complex song structures the band makes you raise your fist.  "Jack Frost," "Absolution," "Bloodugly," "Terrain Vague," and  "Sleepwalker" are undeniable and had metal NOT been destroyed as a genre by grunge, some of the tunes could have been hits on that side of the spectrum.  Angry, skateboarding, male teenagers, loved this band and there were a lot of those types running around in the mid 90's.  It's too bad it never caught on in a major way, this type of music, this scene, could have saved everyone from the retarded angst-rock that did catch on in 1998 with the likes of Korn and Limp Bizkit.

Jack Frost
Bloodugly

Season To Risk Biter B/W Oil 7" Red Decibel 1992

 Season To Risk Biter B/W Oil Red Decibel 1992 CAT # CS7 4908

Season to Risk was an aggressive rock band from KC.  I've heard them called hardcore rock and that suits them well.  Hardcore in the sense that it's a heavy crushing sound.  Too punk to be metal, too metal to be punk.  My brother recalls them as a band he used to throw on the tape deck before heading out to skateboard.

They had a revolving cast, but singer Steve Tulipana and guitarist Duane Trower were the core members.  This release features Paul Malinowski who also gigged with Shiner.  Malinowski was also credited as a songwriter while in the band and added the post-hardcore feel of the group.

In their day, they were one of the more successful KC bands.  They signed to a major label, did music video shoots, and were even seen performing in the Hollywood movie Strange Days.  This 7" outside of the slick John Wayne Gacy artwork is typical of their sound.  'Biter' is a scorcher, bunch of guitars and a pounding rhythm section.  Tulipana runs a ton of vocal effects that make the song and band sound polished and professional.  The song was featured on their self titled debut album, as 'Bitter'.  'Oil' is aggressive sludge rock.  It's nothing spectacular, but enjoyable.