(((((OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain))))): THE ASSISTANT

Monday, 11 November 2013

THE ASSISTANT

Band: THE ASSISTANT
Genres: Punk / Rock / Emotional Hardcore / Metal / Screamo
Related artists: Capacities, Black Kites, In First Person, This Ship Will Sink, You And I, .
Country: New Jersey, USA
Years Active: 2000-2004
Song: "I Have a Name"
Album: "3-Way Split cd"
Year: 2004
For fans of: To Dream of Autumn, Mahria, Rats Into Robots, Circle Takes the Square, Caitlyn Bailey, Mares of Thrace, Dispensing of False Halos, Textbook Traitors, In First Person, Forstella Ford, Black Kites, This Ship Will Sink, Capacities, 1905 and You And I aka PROPER Screamo.
This post's artist is from the October 2013 Mix. This is track #8.
You can download the October 2013 Mix right here.

THE ASSISTANT was a band birthed in chaos, it seems. The band itself had varying political views, suffered hardships and lost members. The music is an onslaught of aggression layered with each member's contribution to the song as a whole. That can be a lot of different layers and to be frank, it's dizzying. Think You And I instrumentals only faster. Actually, the You And I song "Brock Landers and the Mustang Candy Cake" is a pretty accurate example of what direction Tom was heading in prior to THE ASSISTANT.

The band existed for 5 years and is now regarded (says I) as a pioneering act in the hardcore and metallic-screamo scene along with bands like Rats Into Robots, Dispensing of False Halos, Textbook Traitors and Forstella Ford.

I'll provide a (strange) mental image. While listening to "I Have a Name" I picture a massive and fiercely political Godzilla laying waste to towns. Sure, it takes a break to save us from Mothra from time to time, or hits the hay in its volcano den - as the band does employ slower passages, keyboards and cleanly sung female vocals. In the end, many THE ASSISTANT songs are massive collections of killer riffs that are reminiscent of Tom Schlatter's other bands, aka metallic-tinged hardcore/screamo with some random pretty parts. During these "pretty" parts, the clean vocals work and sometimes they border on sounding childish. This style can be found refined and perfected on some In First Person songs. I personally enjoy the chaos more than the melody.

There's a great interview with Tom over at scobonicxxx (Scobonicsplague) blog, linked here.

Remember, OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain's entire Thomas Schlatter interview will be posted in January of 2014. Until then, here is an excerpt from it regarding his time with THE ASSISTANT:

"The Assistant was a rollercoaster. We started out as five people with very different musical ideas and backgrounds so every song was a mixed bag of sounds. We went through a couple member changes, though, myself, Ross and Leigh were always constants in the lineup. Leigh and I were in a relationship together throughout the course of the band, which sometimes was a great advantage (touring together, etc) and other times a disaster (extra pressure on me to fill two roles in the band). We were super vocal about how we felt and were often labeled that “PC band”. It led to a lot of conflict between us and other bands. A few years ago I listened to a few songs and couldn’t even make out what was happening musically. It’s such a bizarre mix of things. The band probably should have broken up a year or two earlier than it did. In a way I’m glad it didn’t since we got to tour the US twice and also do a 3 week tour of Europe; but in other ways the band was incredibly draining on everyone involved. I was pushing the band to do more than we were able to do and you can kind of hear it in the writing. Some of those songs are epics…I feel like we could have taken one of those songs and split it into 10 smaller songs."

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DISCOGRAPHY

Click )==>here<==( to download almost all of the band's complete discography in mp3 form.

2000 - The Assistant cd/12"LP
2000 - Forstella Ford Split 7"
2000 - Antipodes Comp 7"

2001 - The Scarlet Letter Split 7"
2001 - A Days Refrain Split cdEP (if you have this please post it!)

2002 - In The Year Of The Dog tour cdEP (if you have this please post it!)

2003 - We'll Make The Roads By Walking Them cd/12"LP

2004 - This Ship Will Sink / Takaru Split cdEP

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(2000) THE ASSISTANT - "Shaggy Dog Always Eats Spoiled Kitten" (from 'Forstella Ford' split)