Coma Beach – A Madman’s Dream/Mind Descending

Coma Beach – A Madman’s Dream/Mind Descending – EP Review

Amazing!  You know, in my line of work, you really only figure a band can go so far with material that was originally released thirty years ago (congrats on the anniversary!), but Coma Beach has found such impressive ways to keep on milkin’ this cow until its udders are cracked, bleeding, and broken forever.  Way back in 1995, they released an album called The Scapegoat’s Agony, and over the past couple of years, they’ve spent their time dusting it off, polishing it up, and putting the songs out there again in shiny new packages that, generally speaking, the Punk crowd is usually pretty good at spotting from a distance.  On the one hand, the positive side of the scenario, there’s never a bad time to promote good tunes, and Coma Beach’s sound still seems to be as fresh and relevant as it likely ever was…timeless, if you will, to an extent.  Not everyone in the world would have heard The Scapegoat’s Agony, so why on earth wouldn’t they continue to push it, right?  On the other hand, my like…hmm…natural need to move forward has been itchin’ and twitchin’ ever since I first ran into these guys.  Punk is such a strange genre that has an extraordinarily difficult time getting older.  It is nearly impossible for any band to rock just as strong with as much conviction and energy thirty years down the road, but somehow even harder for Punk to remain convincing in that respect.  I don’t even really know how else to put it other than to say it’s just as hard on the audience to watch shows from bands and/or artists that can’t really do what we know they used to be able to do…and in particular, the Punk crowd has a harder time with watching their heroes simply trying to get through a show to make it to their next dose of Advil, as opposed to seeing them peel the paint off the walls and jumping off their amplifiers like they did when they were younger.  Don’t get it twisted, I fully respect anyone in this crazy music business that can stick with it over the years and continue on – that’s an accomplishment by any definition – but for sure, the physical limitations can have us hanging up the spurs on the live stuff and end up living through the recordings instead.  Coma Beach, like it or not, is a prime example of that.  I don’t know how many shows they would have used to play, but I do know that The Scapegoat’s Army seems to be the only album that the band ever released…and YES, a large part of me thinks that is absolutely fucking strange!  What have y’all been doin’ for the past thirty years Coma Beach?  One of the greatest mysteries surrounding this band is what stopped them from making more music.  Shining up the past to bring it into the present doesn’t quite count, dear readers, dear friends…where’s all the Coma Beach songs that were locked in the vault or left half-finished?  Where’s the new stuff?  Heck, even in the race backwards they lost a little steam this month…thirty years ago ain’t even the oldest music I’ve heard this September!  That honor goes to Sand, who fished a song outta the literal 1800s to cover.  You gotta want it more Coma Beach!

Anyhow.  I just like getting on their case because I know they can handle it.  And who knows, maybe all my bitching will eventually light a fire under their collective ass and we’ll get a new album someday.

So…”A Madman’s Dream” starts out this five song EP…four songs of which are still new to me, and then one at the end that I’ve previously commented on.  What do I think about this opening track?  I’ll be real with ya…it’s a little on the clunky side of Punk if I’m being totally honest.  Not necessarily a bad tune by any measure, but it’s missing the confidence this band usually projects when they play, and instead has this really oddly cautious sound that seems like they’re all listening to the track and what’s happening around them more than feeling it when they’re playing it.  Again, for a newer song, that’s not really so much of a factor or something that you’d worry about too much, but when you’re hauling out material that is carbon dated at this point…honestly, I’m not sure why you’d be bringing back a track that might never have been completely right in the first place.  There’s only so much you can do to shine things up when they’re not totally aligned in the original recordings.  I like the ideas of having things in the vocals shift from the lefts to the rights, that’s a fun part of the production on “A Madman’s Dream,” but the original version had that as well.  Folks that are closer to the material are always going to be able to pinpoint the major parts of an update than we would be as listeners on the other side of the speakers – I’m not hearing too much of a refresh on the song overall from my perspective.  The beginning of this song is what sells ya on it with B. Kafka’s signature snarl & yell at full strength, practically daring you to listen.  As for the content…I don’t mind the song…it’s a pretty stick-to-the-script style of Punk, but it works…I just wish they played this with the intention and purpose that they usually bring to their tunes.  It’s tough to fix what was once broken, unless you’re willing to *cough *cough…get back in the studio.

There is a full synopsis that comes along with the record, track by track, if you’re listening at Bandcamp.  Which is…for the most part, a fairly useful thing if you want to help assist people in knowing what a song is about from your perspective.  There’s obviously an argument to be made that once you put a track out into the world, it’s always going to be about what the listeners think it’s about – and personally, I’m probably on that side of the argument…objective reality and such.  Anyhow.  I think I laughed out loud a little bit when I read the description of “Mind Descending” to be honest with ya.  If there’s something in that brief write up that you couldn’t get out of listening to the song, brothers and sisters, I would LOVE to know what that might be.  I wouldn’t accuse them of outright stating the obvious in what they had to say about “Mind Descending” – but HOW COULD ANYONE COME TO A DIFFERENT CONCLUSION?  Coma Beach doesn’t exactly leave you with a whole lot of interpretive value or vagueness in this song, you feel me?  “Mind Descending” is all about the tumultuous spiral into insanity, and believe me when I tell ya, that is CRYSTAL-FUCKING-CLEAR when you’re listening to B. Kafka yelling atcha.  In any event, I was happy to hear the band back on-point and sounding as locked in as I know they’re capable of being on this second track.  Not sure what it was about “A Madman’s Dream,” but it sounded like a whole different band playing it in comparison to what I’ve heard from Coma Beach…so hell yeah, it was great to hear’em back at full strength on “Mind Descending.”  Bonus points for the guitar solo in this tune – not only does it sound absolutely amazing, but give’em credit – they somehow worked in a freakin’ solo on the inside of a two-minute-long song…and that’s practically unheard of.  I’m assuming that’s the man himself, Captain A. Fear on the lead guitar…but let’s not forget the contributions of M. Blunt on the rhythm guitar as well.  Coma Beach has a quality lineup of musicians that all make a savage impact.

OKAY though…what’s THIS?  “Absurd,” you say?  “Absurd” that a Punk band is going with a “Radio Edit” – yes indeed, I agree.  This IS something uniquely special though…and to be truthful with ya, I’m into it.  By comparison to everything I’ve personally heard from Coma Beach so far to-date, “Absurd” is entirely different than anything I’ve listened to.  It’s meaty.  It’s slower.  It’s…hmm…I mean, Kafka still drags this song into the Punk realm because that’s the gear he sings in…but if it weren’t for that, you’ve got like, a fairly normal Rock song, or maybe even a track that you’d compare to the Classic Rock section…maybe something like The Animals.  I think this is seriously commendable though…this is high quality writing, and I love that it’s something new that I haven’t heard Coma Beach do before.  I’m not even suggesting that they got every ounce of the potential in this track onto the recording, or this “radio edit” for that matter…but if they didn’t, they certainly got close.  I think what it is, is that it’s such a vastly different vibe and energy that we wouldn’t typically associate with the punked-up energy of Coma Beach that it is guaranteed to throw you off a bit as your ears adjust to it.  Once you have the chance to acclimatize though, I think you might very well feel the same way I did in listening to “Absurd,” and ask yourself, “is this actually the best song I’ve heard from Coma Beach so far?”  It just might be.  As far as going with a “radio edit” – I’m going to happily assume they meant this in the most ironic of ways that echo the true Punk attitude of sarcasm and such…because let’s be real here, there ain’t no way that a song like “Absurd” makes it onto the radio, ever.  That’s not me saying Coma Beach couldn’t achieve that – I think they’ve got plenty of songs that would qualify.  That’s not me saying that “Absurd” is a bad song either – like I said, it might very well be their BEST.  It’s way more of a comment or indictment of the fact that radio is a chicken-shit environment that would be terrified to play something like this on its airwaves.  It’s already outside of their comfortable realm of songs that are 3:30 in length, and then you consider the fact that it’s the slowest song we’ve ever heard from Coma Beach…I mean…it’s not exactly the way you get onto the radio stations.  Do I wish that weren’t the case?  Of course!  I’d absolutely love to hear a station be brave enough to play something as badass as “Absurd” is…but I know the reality is that they would never.  Sorry if I’m dashing anyone’s hopes out there, thirty years later…it’s still not gonna happen.  That being said, fuck the radio, and fuck doing what’s typical.  What works so well for Coma Beach on this song is partly that we’d never expect to hear something like this from them, and the other part is that it’s a genuinely kickass track with a ton of sonic depth to it.  It’s an anomaly on this record, and indeed to their catalog overall…but I’d have highly encouraged them to keep exploring this kind of stuff if they were to have continued to make more music.  “Absurd” absolutely has something unique that the rest of their material doesn’t…it’s almost like a Bowie-esque interpretation of a Punk song.

“I Won’t Listen” is right up there with the best reasons to listen to this record as well.  In fact, after spinning this EP over the last several days, I think it’s “Absurd” and “I Won’t Listen” that are the real highlights in this set-list if you’re asking me…at least in regards to the tracks that I hadn’t heard yet.  Both of these tracks actually have more in common with the Classic Rock you’d hear in the 60s/early 70s than it does with what you’d traditionally associate with Punk, but I personally think that’s really damn cool.  Up until this point here, I was fairly convinced that Coma Beach kind of had its main thing and rarely deviated from what that was…but both “Absurd” and “I Won’t Listen” prove they have more dimensions to their sound than I was giving them credit for.  I’ll fully admit that it’s the slower part of “I Won’t Listen” that tends to hold my interest more…like, I was almost disappointed when this particular song shifted gears into its more energetic second-half when it was so gripping from the moment that it started.  So…yeah…I mean…it’s still a decent song after it launches into a more upbeat energy, sure – but the real magic of “I Won’t Listen” was within its first ninety seconds or so.  As Coma Beach returns to their safe place inside a more tangible Punk energy, I didn’t love the song quite as much as I did at the start, but that’s really just the consequence of what it’s like to hear something I’m familiar with versus something that’s all new to me.  I know what this band is capable of when they’re letting it rip – so for me, it’s less predictable moments in their catalog like the beginning of “I Won’t Listen” and “Absurd” that tend to make more of an impression and impact on me at this point.  That being said, they’re not really going outright Punk at all in the more upbeat part of “I Won’t Listen” either…it’s a viciously mid-tempo tune when it’s cruising along at full speed, and that’s usually guaranteed to go over like a lead balloon in the court of public opinion, because the masses never know what to do with mid-tempo material.  I’d have loved a version of “I Won’t Listen” that remained in the gear that it starts in, but alas, it is what it is…and I’m just as confident that there are more people out there that would be happy with the way they shift the sound, pace, and energy of this song.  It’s still good as it transitions, even if it’s not quite as good as it began, from my perspective at least…and the guitar solos in this track continue to be huge highlights for the band overall.  Hooks are strong too.  Heck, for many people out there listening, this might end up being the real highlight in the whole set of songs – and that’d be entirely because of the second half.  That might not be the way that I’m hearing it, but I’m more than happy to be wrong in the court of public opinion as long as you’re out there listening to it.  We all like what we like and we love what we love.  Coma Beach does desolate and lethargic energy extremely well though, and considering that it’s something we hear so much more rarely from them, it stands out for the right reasons.  I’m also saying this song’s split in half, when the split is really more like a ¼ to ¾ ratio I guess.

Lastly, they’ve got “Jesus’ Tears” at the end, which I’ve already commented on in a past review that you can read right here.  I wish my time wasn’t so valuable that I could just make a whole bunch more comments on it, but alas, here we are and that’s the case.  I’m kidding, of course.  Sort of.  Maybe.  Look – what I can tell you, is that “Jesus’ Tears” was my very first impression of Coma Beach, and it remains to be one of the strongest tracks in their catalog after all I’ve heard since then.  I still feel that way now.  I’d imagine when Coma Beach inevitably returns again, that I’ll still feel that way.  “Absurd” might be the only track I’ve heard that could potentially give “Jesus’ Tears” a run for its money, but I’m still fairly sure that “Jesus’ Tears” would be the track I’d side with as the best representation of what Coma Beach can do overall.  I could probably make an argument that there might actually be more identity in what you hear on “Absurd” perhaps, but I’d still tell you that “Jesus’ Tears” encapsulates the sound that Coma Beach is truly seeking to create in the most complete way.  Anyhow.  They’ve heard my thoughts on this last track plenty already…they know what I think about it, and if you want to know more, you’re certainly welcome to click the link above and read what my original thoughts were.  It’s definitely not going to weaken any lineup they add it to…and heck, they might just want to include it as the last track for every EP they put out to beef up the set-list that much more if they’re going to keep rehashing the past for the present.  Having said that…B. Kafka…Captain A. Fear…M. Blunt…M. Lecter…and U. Terror – we can all agree that thirty years is a LONG time without new tunes, right?  Drop the balloons, have that final beer, and wrap up the celebrations on the 30^th anniversary guys…and get back in the fuckin’ studio.

Find out more about Coma Beach at Tik Tok here:  https://www.tiktok.com/@coma.beach

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