Punk powerhouse ponders potent possibilities
One phrase that reverberates throughout the debut album Ancient Warnings and accompanying zine from the Chattanooga punk band Listening Skulls is “Ancient voices sing warnings we don’t understand,” reminiscent of the quote “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
“Ancient Warnings is definitely about history repeating because we fail to remember and learn, but also about a whole lot more,” said Tom Foote, the group’s vocalist and lyricist, via email. “We somehow live in a time where there is a (albeit hopefully small) group of people that choose to believe that the world is flat.
“Generations after generations predicting that the end is near. Someday someone will get it right, they have to, right? And there are people out there on all sides pushing for their apocalypse, just so they can say that they’re right.”
Foote concluded his musings on a cautionary note: “I also think some of these songs speak of the human experience and how totally different it is for everyone, and how all of these one-size-fits-all solutions are a bunch of bullshit.”
Foote, also known for his long-running zine “Spare Change” and basement venue Anarchtica, teamed up with local D.I.Y.-scene mainstay Ashley Krey (of the venue Sluggo’s and bands Future Virgins, Riversedge, Basement Benders, and many others), who previously played with Foote in Coma Vigil.
Guitarist Bill Johnson, a bandmate of Krey’s in Future Virgins and Sexy, was enlisted along with drummer Robbie Hanshaw, who had also played with Johnson and Foote in various acts, and the quartet’s first show was on November 1, 2018.
“I think that we all came into this band with an open mind about the musical direction,” said Foote.
“The challenge is to let go of my pre-conceived notions and authoritarian tendencies,” said Krey via email. “The joy of creating together comes from letting go and watching the seeds of ideas change to flowers, albeit twisted. Working on songs individuals bring to the table, there is a mutual effort at deconstruction and reassembly.”
The band travelled to Cincinnati back in April to record Ancient Warnings (available from the Bloomington, Indiana label Let’s Pretend) with friends John Hoffman and Jerry Westerkamp from the group Vacation.
“It can’t be overstated how their selfless work helped us realize this recording,” said Krey. “[They were] always open to experimentation and endlessly inspiring.”
One of the band’s favorites is “Shooting Yourself in the Foot as a Right”, which was the first song that the band wrote that had equal input from all the performers.
“That song had just gotten lyrics right before the recording,” said Foote. “I only sang that song twice at practice before the recording.”
“The music was built around the lyrics,” said Krey. “On the recording it features double vocals with different textures.”
“John and Jerry brought their magic to it, and we started playing with alternative microphones,” said Foote. “I ended up walking away from that recording going, “Okay, I guess I need to go purchase a bullhorn because I want this certain sound!’ And I did.”
Ancient Warnings is packed with raw and potent punk tunes marked with Foote’s part-bombastic, part-unhinged singing and driving riffs, ranging from heavy to sprinting.
The album ends with a somber instrumental that uses an excerpt from a dialogue between artist Arthur Jafa and social scholar bell hooks, where she discusses “deep survival” and the elements that a person uses to survive extreme situations, where trauma can allow a person to shift their behavior; hooks brings up the example of Juliane Koepcke, the teen-aged sole survivor of a plane crash in 1971 in the Amazon rainforest, who braved ten days in the wild before reaching civilization.
“‘Bell Hooks’ was a phone recording of a musical interlude we intended for the record,” said Krey. “It was finished on music software on the 4th floor of the library. Nothing quiet about it.”
“I think in the discussion with ‘Bell Hooks’ one of the things that grabbed me was their thoughts on an ending,” said Krey. “When is an album done? When does it finish forming and become up for grabs to the listener to take its meaning?
“For us it represents a year of work and memory. Its function for us is over. But is there a way we can present it that will transmit some of the transcendence we felt? Our trials navigating art are not unlike Juliane Koepcke’s journey.”