Come - Brand New Vein

and I lick off the knife: Come is certainly one of the bands that I have a very special connection with, so even though this post will hardly be seen by many, it was a particular pleasure to engage with their music. Just as with Chokebore, I read about Come in the Kurt Cobain biography written by Michael Azerrad; it stated that during their last tour, Nirvana had enough of a say in their touring conditions that they could take longer rests between their shows and choose their own opening acts to travel with them which led Kurt Cobain to pick some of his favorites, namely these two. Now while for me Kurt Cobain is not an idol anymore in most areas of my life, especially as concerns his unfortunate suicide and the erraticness that undoubtedly sprung from his also extremely unfortunate and out-of-control drug use, his musical taste and great musical appreciation are beyond question, to the point that I nowadays much prefer these two bands to Nirvana with whom the story started for me, not least because of the limited amount of material (including all their unreleased songs and cover versions) that Nirvana put out, certainly at least in part due to Kurt Cobain’s untimely death. Anyway, from when I read the biography these two bands were on my radar. Then one day I was at a record store, back when CDs were a thing, as usual having a great time browsing the shelves for hours on end, looking for things that might interest me enough to spend my savings on, such as bands that I had heard of, and whose albums looked appealing, bands that I already had some albums of, etc. – in my decisions, I usually struck a balance between personal interest and price of the album, so a very expensive album would have to interest me a lot in order to make it into my cart. That’s how I came across Come’s superb “Don’t ask don’t tell” some 11 (coincidence?) years ago, attracted by the somewhat bizarre and spooky but strangely uninformative album artwork – I had in fact no idea what expected me. This was then the album I listened to as we moved out of the flat I had been living in all my life, as I assembled all my LEGO toys to ensure no parts were missing and later during the painting works. Afterwards I went on a long student exchange to Paraguay for one year; since mp3 was not around, I decided to limit myself to a single CD to take along, and instead buy and discover new stuff there (needless to say, I found a lot!). I picked this one, feeling that it would make for very interesting company in Paraguay, and also because it might have been the first time a Come album visited Paraguay, and that vice versa (a limited circle of) Paraguayans had a chance to listen to Come. I never regretted this decision, went on to explore tons of music, and came back to Come many years later under different circumstances. I ordered all the other three by now out of print albums at once and received them with some delay due to weather conditions in the US which is just what you expect to happen with Come albums. “Near Life Experience” became another favorite whereas after some initial excitement the last album struck me as a bit indigestible, and likewise the first one also failed to fascinate me as much as the others. One of my earliest Youtube covers was of Come’s “Wrong Side” and one of the few times a band member from a band I covered actually sent me an encouraging message – Chris Brokaw. I met him a few months later at a dirtmusic concert and talked to him before the show. As my life got better, Come gradually dropped from my heavy rotation list, as to me – honestly speaking – Come’s music talks of alienation, trauma, and as I would later realize, maybe even misplaced drug nostalgia. Come appeared on my radar again in 2013 when they had a reunion tour in support of the re-issue of their first album. They came to London and although I had long stopped attending rock concerts (save a Chokebore show on their 2010 reunion tour), I decided that this was something I could not miss. Honestly, I could not say that I enjoyed the concert too much, mostly because I was feeling a bit exhausted and under the weather, and they unsurprisingly played mostly songs from the first album which I hadn’t listened to in a long time. However, this song was a special experience, and I was much more familiar with it because for some reason it was for a long time the only Come song streamable on last.fm. Transcribing this song was cumbersome, but fascinating because for the first time it allowed me to understand the intertwining guitars so crucial to Come’s sound, although I could not say for sure if the basic way in which it achieves its effect is the same in other songs. In this one, it works by combining a main riff on Thalia’s guitar with miscellaneous types of accompaniment by Chris: Sometimes it is just the same chords, but with different picking patterns and rhythm, creating overlap and displacement, sometimes it is similar chords with added notes, little patterns and licks, ornaments and effects such as vibrato, or in rare cases even mostly different chords. The most difficult part of the transcription was doubtlessly the drums and at some point I gave up trying to detail all the variations, little fills and extra accents. The drum parts challenged my dogma that the best drummers keep it simple which is certainly true for a lot of songs, situations and bands. It’s the old problem with drummers that they tend to hear their own part more prominently than the music as a whole: But you don’t want a drummer who turns his part into a song-length drum solo because it creates confusion and blurs a song’s rhythm and structure. As much as this golden rule is eminently broken in this song, it fits surprisingly well with the rhythmic prominence and disjointedness of a Come song. Needless to say, Arthur is a great drummer whose style is an integral part of Come’s unique sound. I will never forget the strange face Chris pulled when at the end of the song’s long build-up the glorious Gb7 chord came on, coinciding with the shouted line “Will pump out a brand new vein”. It opened a new chapter in my relationship with this song, and so it became the first Come song I picked for a piano cover.