Yank Crime

Untitled

Yank Crime is the second and final album by the San Diego, California post-hardcore band Drive Like Jehu, released in 1994 by Interscope Records. It was the band's major-label debut and its artwork was created by singer/guitarist Rick Froberg. The band toured in support of the album but then quietly disbanded the following year as the members moved off to pursue other interests.

In later years, as guitarist John Reis found international recognition with his band Rocket from the Crypt, a gradually growing audience began to pinpoint Drive Like Jehu's music as a catalyst for the eclectic San Diego music scene and the emerging national emocore scene of the 1990s. In 2003 Reis re-released Yank Crime on his Swami Records label, including on it the songs from the band's "Hand Over Fist" / "Bullet Train to Vegas" single and the original version of "Sinews" that had appeared on the compilation Head Start to Purgatory.

Reception

Ned Raggett of Allmusic gave Yank Crime 4½ stars out of 5, calling it "as worthy and awesome as its predecessor, losing not a jot in the change from independent to major label status." He also remarked on the album's significance to the emo genre, saying "Perhaps even more than [their 1992 debut album], Yank Crime solidified Drive Like Jehu's reputation as kings of emo. While use of that term rapidly degenerated to apply to sappy miserableness by the decade's end, here the quartet capture its original sense, wired, frenetic, screaming passion, as first semi-created by the likes of Rites of Spring." Brendan Reid of Pitchfork Media rated the 2003 reissue of the album 9.0 out of 10, remarking that "Opening an album with a song as bracingly great as 'Here Come the Rome Plows' would be a shot in the foot for almost any other band, with its snakepit verses and a chorus that goes from balled-up fists to open arms and back again before you can take a breath. 'Golden Brown' does the same in almost half the time. These more straightforward songs sting like snowballs packed with rock-hard chunks of melody, and in each case, Froberg's voice abrades the solid lines down to the bare minimum, and the band fills in the resulting space with pure venom." He also commented on the album's significance to emo, saying "It's often easy to forget that DLJ were considered emo in their day; Froberg's howls of 'Ready, ready to let you in!' on 'Super Unison' seem like a sick parody of stylish vulnerability. Then the song mutates into a gorgeous, snare-drum rolling open sea, and everything you've ever liked (and still like) about this genre in its purest form comes flooding back."

CD track listing

All songs written by Drive Like Jehu

1. "Here Come the Rome Plows" - 5:44
2. "Do You Compute" - 7:12
3. "Golden Brown" - 3:14
4. "Luau" - 9:27
5. "Super Unison" - 7:24
6. "New Intro" - 3:32
7. "New Math" - 4:06
8. "Human Interest" - 3:24
9. "Sinews" - 9:12
10. "Hand Over Fist"* - 4:24
11. "Bullet Train to Vegas"* - 2:40
12. "Sinews" (original version)* - 9:32

*Tracks 10-12 appear on the 2003 re-release only.

• The titles of tracks 10 and 11 are incorrectly reversed on the album sleeve.

Vinyl track listing

The album comes with one 12-inch disc and one 7-inch disc. The back of the album cover implies the 7-inch disc is to follow the 12-inch disc.

Side A:

1. "Here Come The Rome Plows"
2. "Do You Compute"
3. "Luau"

Side B:

1. "Super Unison"
2. "Golden Brown"
3. "Sinews"

Side C:

1. "Human Interest"
2. "New Intro"

Side D:

1. "New Math"

Performers

• Rick Froberg - guitar, lead vocals
• John Reis - guitar, backing vocals
• Mike Kennedy - bass
• Mark Trombino - drums
• Rob Crow - backing vocals on "Luau"

Album information

• Record label: Original CD release: Interscope Records; vinyl release: Head Hunter Records; CD re-release: Swami Records
• Recorded 1994 at Westbeach Recorders and Big Fish Studios
• Engineered by Donnell Cameron and Mark Trombino with assistance by Joe Peccerillo and Paul Waroff.
• Additional assistance Joe Kucera
• Mixed by Mark Trombino
• All songs and music by Drive Like Jehu, published by Sterno (BMI)
• Artwork by Rick Froberg.