A Handful of Dust: John Brown Battery - Only Normal People Are The Ones You Don't Know That Well (2001)

I decided that the first three posts are going to be Chicagocentric. A trifecta of all things Chicago punk related. Here we have something somewhat removed from the classic Chicago punk sound of Articles of Faith, or their peers, with an early 2000's band called John Brown Battery. This is a band that is more Jawbreaker than Bad Brains. In fact, I would probably go as far to say that they are one of my favorite Chicago bands. A lofty statement, I know. Anyway, John Brown Battery hailed (at least I think so, one of my county friends can let me know for sure) from the DuPage area. Now, I had the unfortunate situation of hailing from the Northwest suburbs, which specialized in pop-punk, rather than Dupage county, which had an eclectic mix of bands. Therefore, I never really got to fully experience some of these great bands unless they came through my area. By the time I finally got around to giving John Brown Battery my attention, they were already long gone. Bummer, huh?

Only Normal People Are The Ones You Don't Know That Well was the bands second release, or last release, I am not sure about the release dates of their records. This 5 song little number here seems to get over shadowed by their full length, ...Is Jinxed, but these 5 songs are some of their best. They also have a 7in, as well, three releases total, all top notch material.

I digress. Who wants to hear about the logistics of the bands releases? I wouldn't, but I also know what you would be missing. Do you like Jawbreaker? Right, who doesn't. How about Hot Water Music? Small Brown Bike? Maybe even some Leatherface? Take all of those gruffy beard ridden punk sounds, put them in a blender, and then season it with some Ebullition Records sounds, and you have yourself John Brown Battery. I could go one about how great of an opener "Postcards..." is, or the mature sound of "Either Or", but I only want to really describe one song off of this record, the last one. "Drowning Deep Ends" is the best song they have ever written. Do you hear that bass line, pummelling your ears? The power of the sonic power of the instruments that kick in? And the trademark gruff of the three vocalists. The perfect closer to a wonderful little EP.

In conclusion, you need this. Do yourself a favor, download this, and then kick yourself in the ass for not knowing about it sooner. And then kick your other ass, or a friends ass, out of frustration because you know that you will never see this band. What a shame.

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