Surly Brewing Co. is smallish brewery out of MN that I fell in love with when I was out that way in 2011. They make a variety of splendid beers including one of the best Russian Imperial Stouts I've ever tasted. There's a problem with that though. I live in CT and Surly doesn't have distribution outside of the Mid-West. I did however find out about a MN based website through some friends on Untappd called France44.com that will ship me Surly products right to my door, provided I'm there to receive them with my ID in hand. Anyway, I bought a butt-load and today's selection is their Double IPA entitled Abrasive. Do they call it that because it'll scrape the enamel off your teeth? It's altogether possible. The first thing you will notice after you pour it into a glass - (always pour craft beer from a can into a glass) - is that it's extremely cloudy and there are little hop particles floating it it. This is a sign of the intensity to come. The color is actually extremely pale but with all the floating goodness it looks a few shades darker. Next thing you'll notice is the great smell. Take a good whiff and you'll feel like you've been transported to a pine forest in the middle of winter. The body is light, which is nice for an IPA but a little bit unexpected for a 9% beer. The first sip is going to hit you right in the jowls. You will salivate with the lingering bitter hop bite. Being that this is an Imperial IPA most of the flavor here is piney with slight zing of limey citrus. There is just enough sweetness in the alcohol and malts to keep it from being overbearing but this is not for the faint of tongue. While they're not reinventing the wheel with thsi beer, Surly is proving that even a brewery in a cold weather state who's flagship beer is an impeccable brown ale can brew an Imperial IPA with the best of them.
Speaking of "the best of them"... today we've got Daredevil. In my opinion one of the Marvel Universe's most under appreciated heroes. The Frank Miller stories and the run that Kevin Smith (yes, the Mallrats guy) alone make Daredevil a star. But I digress, I'm not here to defend Daredevil's honor, he could do that himself, he's a high-powered attorney you know. Volume1 of the Mark Waid run is Daredevil coming back to NY and trying to get his life back together. He'd been lying low elsewhere due to the fact that it was becoming common knowledge, although unproven, that Daredevil and Matt Murdock are the same guy. Not a good thing but as they talk about in the book, how does one keep a secret identity in this age of information? Smartphones alone are bound to blow your cover. Anyway... Daredevil's back, he's trying to get back into the swing of hero-ing, lawyer-ing, getting his buddy Foggy to take care of himself and give himself a new lease on life. Wouldn't you know it, super villians and a pesky global crime syndicate get in the way. So the hero-ing bit is slightly on the predictable side but it's handled with grace by Waid. The scenes that are dawn out in the way Murdock "sees" the world and the thought process while fighting the bad guys makes it all much more interesting. Murdock's personal life has always been just as trying and interesting as his masked vigilante life which is what makes him so great. The characters are all quite believable in and of themselves and the courtroom seems plausible, at least handled with enough care by Waid to suspend disbelief. Being that the only criminal courtroom experience i have is watching Law and Order, he made me a believer. This is a story that is sure to develop and Vol. 1 is well written enough to make you want to see how it continues. The art is also quite interesting. I said before that each of today's elements have a bit of haze to them... well the art is where the haze comes in here. When the Matt Murdock is being Matt Murdock there are a lot of flat almost pastel colors and the drawings aren't overly detailed. It's a style that is very reminiscent of Tim Sale's. When the Daredevil garb gets put on everything becomes darker and sharper. The lines and shadowing give everything far more depth and really refocus your eyes. The difference is not so pronounced that it's jarring but I did notice it more and more as the story went on. This is a well planned and put together story does seem like it will go places and I'm looking forward to gong there as well.
The third bit of haze is Guilty of Everything by Nothing. These Philly shoegazers just signed with Relapse Records to release this album. Now when I use the words shoegaze and Relapse in the same sentence you're probably thinking some kinda black gaze sorta Wolves in the Throne Room type thing. You'd be wrong because that is not the case at all. Nothing has far more to do with Ride and Slowdive than with WINTTR or Agalloch. Nothing have got to be the most non-metal band on the Relapse roster, because they're not metal at all. This is a wash of guitar and ghostly melodic vocals, atmosphere for days but with a steady driving drumbeat. While most shoegaze music leaves the drums behind a serous wash of reverb, Nothing keep them steady in the mix and allow them to push the songs in a more standard rock style. I think this gives them a better cross over appeal and makes the songs more dynamic. It also gives them the ability to play some faster songs. Let's face it, if you can't hear the drums you have no real way to relay the speed of the song, no matter how fast anyone is strumming their guitar. I see Nothing as a band that has truly done their homework. The elements of what made the original shoegaze great are there and then they add in the presence of the drums, some of the real minimal and creepy parts that that work so well in the black gaze stuff, and some of the super strummed post rock stylings of Explosions in the Sky or Mono. Even if you're not going to pick this album apart and try and figure out how they pieced this sound together, the great melody and the outstanding guitar sound are all you'll need to make you love this record. So I say bravo Relapse for expanding your horizons.
