Aleutian Drift is a four-piece band built on the foundations of late 70s to mid-eighties era punk, and expressed through post-punk sonic washes and melodic song arcs. Drawing influence from such seminal acts as Joy Division, Bauhaus, and Sonic Youth, as well as Radiohead and Interpol, AD finds its place in resonance as revolution, dissonance as dissidence, and seismic pulse as subaltern power.
Tales of homecoming after considerable periods away have long found resonance within our psyches, and classic works such as The Odyssey, or more relatively recently, The Lord of the Rings, work with such themes to great effect because they touch upon something we can immediately relate to. What draws us back home varies; perhaps a need for comfort or security, or perhaps an urgency to finally make right. In the case of Aleutian Drift, which represents a reunion and homecoming for the late ‘80s cold(ish) wave band About the Poets, it is the desire to rekindle a torch that never really went fully out. As in its original formation, which arose in and through a period of cultural and political turmoil, Aleutian Drift also finds itself in a moment of even greater social and political unease and unrest. We have a feeling that this is no coincidence. However, we also know that we may not fully understand the circumstances which brought us back together after such a long time. Alutian Drift nevertheless presents an outfit we feel has withstood the test of time. All four original band members are here. They include Bruce Collet (vocals), Robert Kudrle (guitars), Kevin Lian-Anderson (bass), and Chris Weise (drums).
About the Poets
In the year 1988, America was immersed in Reagan era conservativism, Cold War paranoia, and new depths to which members within the ruling party would lower themselves to exert their influence and power (most notably as manifested in the Iran-Contra Affair). The country was hurling toward a post-industrial economy and an uncertain frontier, and the clashing of the old and the new lay thick in the air. The punk and “post-punk” scenes, with their strongly anti-authoritarian and anti-corporatism stance, and committed DIY ethic, held out a mirror as well as presented a reaction to society’s ills of the time. Within this ethos, the relatively short-lived but nevertheless impressionable foursome About the Poets (ATP) formed from students in the freshman class of the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. As a regional college town in close proximity to Minneapolis, Eau Claire was uniquely positioned as both a conduit of and contributor to the midwestern alternative music scene (when the word “alternative” still meant something), and young listeners and players were well steeped in the music of such seminal acts as The Replacements, Husker Du, and Naked Raygun.
ATP’s sound and lyrics were indeed steeped in their musical, social, and political time, but they were also fresh and bold. The band quickly found venues to play in Eau Claire, Minneapolis, and Madison, and before members went their separate ways recorded seven songs on a reel-to-reel in a makeshift eight-track studio cobbled together in an empty gas station on Water Street in Eau Claire (like so many other structures from the era, that building is now gone, replaced by a “public-private” venture that surely owes its existence to the neoliberalism that Reagan and Thatcher brazenly imposed upon the world). We believe that those seven songs, recorded in just one evening, and in just one or two takes, have withstood the test of time. We offer a sampling here for your exploration and enjoyment.
