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Plays Pretty for Baby

Nation of Ulysses

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Album Review

This is genius. This is a revolution, of both thought and sound. The Nation of Ulysses is unmatchable by any band ever; they have created a dialectic, a movement, and a youthful assault of the mind and senses. Like Greek to a Caucasian child, most will never understand even partially the spirit that lurks in these movements for it is about something higher than mere music. There is something that moves beyond the lingoes of "The Aspirin Kid" Ian Svenonious, the complicated scriptures that fill the liner notes, the infamous reputations of insane and overwhelming live performance. A warped hybrid synthesis of trashy garage rock, spastic jazz, and creative freedoms. Languages created and swallowed amidst the words and discordant melodies. Full of fervor, anger, wit, and remorse. Solid spastic percussion, swirling distorted guitars, droning bass, and swollen horns. Rambling exploding vocals spitting words of animosity and love, of rebellion and unity, of awakening and medicine. The Nation of Ulysses must prevail.

Customer Reviews

NoU must prevail.

Astounding. Few bands can match the intricacy of the NoU. Granted, they may take some time to get used to, but once you do...

Can you say masterpiece?

An amazing album that will blow you away! Its got your punk and your jazz, and it bleeds youth. Every song is great, and you'll have no reason what so ever to skip a single track. From some of the more intense tracks to "Depression III" you will be singing and quite possibly hardcore dancing. From "N-Sub Ulysses" to "Presidents of Vic," cool is the implied subtitle for every song.

Respect is Due

There is of course an acute irony in expressing nostalgia for a band who were anti-nostalgia. But being in Washington D.C. during NOU's brief tenure was a very exciting time. The strange aftermath following the explosion of Nirvana hadn't really unfolded. The internet was just an idea. And independent record stores were where future reviewers for Pitchfork disseminated the latest gems. Riot Grrrl and bands from Olympia were suddenly making their mark on the nation's capitol. For Dischord it was the salad days...and though many great releases have since followed, it's never recaptured that creative output.
Nation of Ulysses remains, for me, the high watermark of of this period. They somehow took the very basic ingredients of "punk" or whatever you want to call it and made it seem completely new and exciting. What that is exactly...is quite ineffable. As Winton Marsalis said about Be-Bop....YOU have to come to the music. You have to let go of preconceived notions of what music should be and take what is being offered. Great music challenges. And greatly rewards. Plays Pretty for Baby rewards like no other.

Biography

Formed: 1988 in Washington DC

Genre: Alternative

Years Active: '90s

One of the best-loved bands on the Dischord roster, the Nation of Ulysses are best remembered for lifting the motor-mouthed revolutionary rhetoric of the MC5 and blowing it up to an elaborate, almost ridiculous level. Any discussion of NoU inevitably comes to rest on their conceptual foundation: a relentlessly provocative (and entertaining) jumble of teenage rock & roll rebellion, leftist radicalism, anarchist punk polemics, and abstract intellectual rambling. This filled not only their lyrics...
Full Bio