Wednesday 24 May 2017

***RENÉ DESCARTES exclusive interview***

GenresPunk / Rock / Post-Rock / Hardcore / Post-Hardcore / Emo / Emotive Hardcore / Screamo / Emo-violence / Skramz / Noise
Related artistsSeeYouSpaceCowboyThe Shotgun MessageMeryl Streaker and Allmywisheswerethrondownawellandshoulddiethere.
CountrySan Francisco, California USA
Years Active2015-2016
Album: "Demo"
Year: 2016
For fans ofInnards, Deers!, KŸHL, Saetia, Wolves, Sketchbooks, Ogni Giorno, Sleeper Wave, Pepi Rössler, Matsuri and Flowers Tapes To Pens aka PROPER SCREAMO.
Label(s): Structures//Agony Records / Zegema Beach Records
This post's artist is from the March 2017 Mix. This is track #3.
You can download: the new June 2017 Mix#6 here.

A few years back I kept hearing about this band called Flowers Taped To Pens. Apparently they were young and screamy, that's pretty much all I knew. They disbanded right around the time I checked them out and about a year later I saw RENÉ DESCARTES' name pop up on a few message boards citing members of Flowers Taped To Pens. I thoroughly enjoyed the 'Demo' tape and was ecstatic when Connie (vocals) asked me to help release their final, self titled cassette which I received in the mail earlier this week.

The 2016 'Demo' is four songs of loose, screamy hardcore. "You Had Me At 'Noam Chomsky'..." is a 3:30 romp of wailing, loose and shrieky screamo with strong stylistic ties to Innards and Deers! with an intro that is likely the best thing the band ever did. "Dance DanceQueer Revolution" boasts some fantastic guitar work that reminds me of Polina and perhaps even Hot Cross just before the 20-second mark amidst the excellent use of multiple screamers. "Solace//Despair (nothing is concrete) employs very engaging and almost spacey guitars from 1:00 to 1:35 in addition to the vocal insanity that is typical RENÉ DESCARTES. Closer "...Just the Kids Who Built Community" really gets going at 50 seconds with driving guitar work that explodes at 1:05 with the crunchiest, thickest and catchiest instrumental work of the release which is then accentuated with the perfect amount of screeching. At 1:55 the song sounds like it gets a slight remix with lo-fi, bass heavy breakdowns that permeates as much noise as hardcore.

The 2017 release of 'René Descartes' showed a heavier emphasis on spoken, sassy vocals and even more piercing screams, with the instrumentals more or less following the same path as the debut EP. "Those Lives FoundIn That Time" is the essential song from this posthumous cassette that encapsulates everything the band was about at the time of their dissolution. "Subjugation of Physical Validation" is a slow jam with very basic framework and execution, but it holds up well as an interlude between the two heavier tracks. Closer "Repressed LifeLessons" is the most unstable of the three songs, as the first 22 seconds are utter chaos and you know the batshit crazy screaming doesn't stop after that.

Now that RENÉ DESCARTES is dead we have been graced with the birth of SeeYouSpaceCowboy, and for that we can all be thankful. Check out the premiere of their new song here. The following interview excerpt is taken from an upcoming SeeYouSpaceCowboy interview with Connie and will be posted in full next month. 

An Interview with CONNIE SGARBOSSA of RENÉ DESCARTES:

Tell us about your time in Rene Descartes. Do you look back on it fondly?
I do look back fondly on that band, it was really refreshing after being in San Francisco for over a year and not playing in any bands during that time. It was really cool to work with Ethan again and Jay from allmywisheswerethrowndownawellandshoulddiethere, and also meeting Jonathan was really cool and he is a really awesome person.

 Did it dissolve at what may seem like the right time, in hindsight?
Well not really it kinda ended abruptly when our living situation ended and me and Ethan left the Bay Area, we had plans that we didn't really come to fruition because of that and I really wish we had more time to flesh out everything we wanted to do.

What bands would you compare Rene to? What were your influences during that time?
Hmm I am not sure, I asked Ethan to take influence from bands like Matsuri, Adobe Homes, and The Kodan Armada but I am not sure if he listened to me haha. Some sass influence definitely started to creep in there as well towards the end.

When did the band start? What other bands have the members of Rene been in?
The band started sometime around December 2015 and ended like June 2016, so it was really short lived. Well Jay was in AMWWTDAWASDT like i mentioned earlier, me and Ethan were in Flowers Taped To Pens together and I had also played in Meryl Streaker as well, I am completely drawing a blank on the name but Jonathan played in a twinkly indie rockish band before.
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DISCOGRAPHY

2016 - Demo cassetteEP (stream/donate/buy here)

2017 - René Descartes cassetteEP (stream/donate/buy here) [order tape here]

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(2017) RENÉ DESCARTES - "Those Lives Found In That Time" (from 'René Descartes')

(2017) RENÉ DESCARTES - "Repressed Life Lessons" (from 'René Descartes')

(2016) RENÉ DESCARTES - "You Had Me At ‘Noam Chomsky’..." (from 'Demo')

(2016) RENÉ DESCARTES - "Dance Dance Queer Revolution" (from 'Demo')

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RENÉ DESCARTES additional links



Order final cassette release from Zegema BeachRecords OR Structures//Agony Records
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