Via: Via

If Polvo and Unwound were two of the most understated voices from the American underground of the ’90s, then it would be fair to say that Come were also a part of the same conversation.

Thalia Zedek’s vocals were like a maelstrom. Unvarnished spirit where every word was felt. The height being Come’s blistering debut 11:11 that, at times, encapsulated the same ferocious intensity as listening to Raw Power for the first time.

Zedek spent most of the ’80s raising hell in Dangerous Birds and Uzi before joining Live Skull on a full-time basis in 1987. However, in many ways, it was Via that wove a strong thread through the patchwork of Zedek’s later creative endeavours. The short-lived band that lasted for two shows (one in Boston; one in New York), Via featured Zedek, Jerry di Rienzo (Cell, Nuclear Theater), James Apt (Six Finger Satellite), Adam Gaynor (Nuclear Theater) and Phil Milstein (also of Uzi).

Until now, to many Via were an unknown quantity – the band’s brief history, a handful of 8-track recordings from 1987 in di Reienzo’s basement in Somerville, MA. It was following a discussion between Dromedary Records’ Al Crisafulli and Zedek’s Come bandmate, Chris Brokaw, when the wheels for this release were inadvertently put in motion. “Maybe Thalia’s best band. Jerry’s, too,” claimed Brokaw, much Crisafulli’s surprise, who hadn’t even heard of Via.

Shortly after their conversation, Crisafulli received some rough mixes of the songs, and after discussing them with Zedek and di Reienzo, the rest was history. Via’s recordings, shaped into an EP that stands as one of the best released this year. A crucial document not just in Zedek’s already-excellent body of work, but from the American underground at large.

Via matched the tonal precision of Band Of Susans, smashing it into the rockabilly of The Gun Club. A siege of white-hot noise designed to blow the mind apart. And that’s what these recordings do.

 “JJ I got a new lover, yeah /With JJ I thought I’d go under cover,” sings Zedek on opening gambit, JJ. Broken-hearted croon ’n’ roll as noise rockets from the speakers, bouncing from wall to wall. Sounding like was conceived in smoke-filled bar, thematically, it captures the darkness that would dominate much of Zedek’s later works.

There are moments when Via opened the gates that led to places for others to shine, too. Cell echoed the kind of majesty that Eleventh Dream Day would deliver with their era-defining Prairie School Freakout in 1988, while How We Got This Way results in something that Justin Trosper may have conjured up after binging on Crazy Horse. Electrifying, spit and sawdust rockabilly that’s like a primal howl to the skies, and it doesn’t stop with 1,000 MPH. As disorderly as its title claims, 1,000 MPH is a wall of glorious noise that causes the kind of cranial overload that sparks euphoria.

There’s no let up on The Other, either, as Zedek and di Rienzo trade blows with something likened to bolt rumbling countrygaze that, with the benefit of hindsight, provides an insight into Zedek’s handiwork in Come. So too on What You Say You Feel, as Gaynor’s drums roll into a crescendo that unravels as a cow punk freak-out that rips the door from its hinges.

It embodies the spirit of home recordings. An unique energy that can’t be replicated anywhere else, and in this case, Via caught the kind of lightning bottle that only possesses a limited shelf life. That’s not to say this was music of its time, just a special moment frozen in it. An unearthed gem, which begs the question: how many more recordings like this are out there ready to be excavated from the soils of the underground?

Via is out tomorrow via Dromedary Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.