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excellent write up, dubkitty.

here's a nice TV broadcast shot for KQED--the San Francisco NET (pre-PBS) outlet--from 1968 featuring some of Big Brother's more likeable and more musical tunes, and some truly wacky interview footage.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khCAIAucN4E[/youtube]

Converge. Sorry if you're reading this and you have a Jane Doe tattoo or something. Just, yeesh... Most of that record sounds like:
[Hectic but still boring riff]
[Vocals: "SQUAWK. SQUAWK A SQUAWK. SQUAAAWK. SQUAWK.]

They do have a few songs I like and Ballou is a great producer, but damn I wonder how that guy I knew in high school feels about that massive "YOU FAIL ME" tattoo he got running the length of his forearm.

^ Yes. Also growing up in that area so many bands sounded really similar. It was kinda unclear why one band got "big" and another didn't.

I really liked the idea of Converge, their music always appealed to me as being more intrinsic and visceral than a lot of other bands in the same vein from that era, but I have to admit I could never do more than a few listens per year at best. I guess deep down it just isn't my style of music, but I always found Jake Bannon and Kurt Ballou to be similarly interesting artists. Big fan of Nate Newton's work with Old Man Gloom, too.

Edit: Funnily, a lot of people that are fans tend to go out of their way to tell me I look like Jake Bannon. I can't tell if it's flattering or not.

I dig Converge, but they were crazy overhyped during the Jane Doe era. Early 00's Converge fandom was akin to 2018 Rick and Morty fandom. If you'd have told some jet black fringed mosh-bro that Converge were 'just okay' back in 2004 he'd have spin kicked your face repeatedly until you no longer had a face.

You Fail Me is a tight record, my favourite Converge LP, but I don't think it'd make my top 20 all time hardcore LPs. I remember when it came out and I told a couple of my mates that I liked it way more than Jane Doe, they looked at me like I had grown another head. Not being fanatical about Jane Doe painted you as some sort of lunatic in hardcore circles.

More_Divebombs wrote: spin kicked your face repeatedly until you no longer had a face.

My favorite Converge song is "Wretched World" lol
They should just play all chill ass jams like that. I'll embed it sometime when im not on mobile.

Converge really banked on that dunnnnn meow-meow! breakdown for every damn record too.

Jane Doe album was amazing live. Absolutely amazing. I saw Converge with Mastodon years back and it was probably still one of the best shows I've ever been to.

Was it the best album? No, but I like it. It's different. I needed different, so it fit.