01. Union town
3 minutes; 5.7MB
Anti-Matter Zine/Doghouse Records 1994
Living in the midwest, I was lucky enough to see Split Lip (usually on tour with Endpoint) numerous times before they went alt-country. Split Lip was one of the better hardcore bands kicking around during the time when hardcore bands sort of ground the youth crew template into the ground (the first time) and weren't really sure what to do without sounding stale. For every Split Lip, Quicksand, Hoover or really awesome, innovative bands that came out of this period, you unfortunately ended up with 10 more that were truly horrid. Split Lip started out promising, albiet a tad cookie-cutter and grew into something moodier, more brooding, and more "Americana" sounding as time went on.
I remember listening to this with a friend as soon as we got it. We dug it, but weren't exactly won over. The two of us had played For the Love of the Wounded incessantly, and this track was a lot more open and subdued. For a couple of kids weaned on a steady diet of Minor Threat, less aggressive wasn't necessarily a good thing. You probably know the story from there: once Fate's Got a Driver was released, Split Lip rechristened themselves Chamberlain and more or less acted like their earlier material never happened. This bummed me the fuck out since I thought those earlier records were brilliant. I understood what they were trying to do and while I loved Fate's Got a Driver, I got the split with Old Pike and it lost me. It took me years to appreciate it and the records that followed. To this day, Fate's Got a Driver is still my favorite record that they did.
Union Town ended up on Fate's for the most part unchanged. The vocals are definitely higher and delivered differently than happened on the album (and the subsequent re-recording/mixing of the album as Chamberlain) There are essentially 3 recorded versions of this song out there.
Seems that Split Lip/Chamberlain is back together in some form or another as of last year. If anyone hears some old asshole at a show in the back yelling For the Love of the Wounded songs, that's probably me.
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