Cloak/Dagger: We Are
By
Evan Sawdey 19 September 2007PopMatters Interviews Editor
More Dagger Than Cloak
Cloak/Dagger’s We Are contains the most exhausting 22-minute stretch of music of 2007. What stretch is being referred to here? Why, the whole album, of course! Hardcore may come and go, but few come and go as quick as Cloak/Dagger do. They have a sound that’s stuck somewhere between the Blood Brothers and John Zorn’s Naked City, and—let’s face it—all the songs sound the same. Yet this would be a complaint if the music actually lingered. It doesn’t. “Bended Knee” opens with a relentless galloping bang and doesn’t slow down for a single second. The only time the group does slows down is for the hidden track at the very end, in which guitarist Colin Barth attempts to synthesize the history of Pixies guitar noodling down into two minutes. Then the drums kick, and the song fades out, like the group will be playing more hardcore madness forever. This isn’t essential listening, but if you’re in dire need of a hardcore fix, Cloak/Dagger does nothing but satisfy.
Evan Sawdey began contributing to PopMatters in late 2005 after contributing for years to his college newspaper
The Knox Student. Evan became the Associate Interviews Editor for PopMatters in the summer of 2008, and then the full Interviews Editor a year after that. Since joining, Evan's work has been quoted/featured in a wide array of publications including SLUG Magazine, The Metro (U.K.), the Gulf Times, Soundvenue Magazine (Denmark), and multiple national newspapers. Evan has been a guest on WNYC's Soundcheck (an NPR affiliate), was the Executive Producer for the
Good With Words: A Tribute to Benjamin Durdle album (available for free at
GoodWithWordsAlbum.com), and wrote the liner notes for the 2011 re-release of
Andre Cymone's hit 1985 album A.C. (Big Break Records) and the 2012 re-releases of
the JoBoxers' 1983 debut album Like Gangbusters,
'Til Tuesday's 1985 debut Voices Carry, and
Plastic Bertrand's 1978 album AN 1 (all Hot Shot Records). He is a current member of The Recording Academy and resides in Chicago, Illinois. You can follow him
@SawdEye should you be so inclined.
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