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the eternals
sonic manipulators jack into the outer limits of sound.
words: scoTT Thill illusTraTion: damon locks
Damon Locks and Wayne Montana spent the ‘90s in the underrated
Trenchmouth, helping push the post-rock juggernaut built by pals like
Tortoise and others forward into the new millennium. So far, they’ve spent
the 21st century tearing down cozy genre classifications altogether as the
brains behind The Eternals.
“By the time Trenchmouth finished,” confesses Locks, “we had already
become disinterested in playing rock-based music. When The Eternals
started, it was our chance to create something different, something we had
not heard before.”
Montana agrees. “Concepts of sound manipulation and arrangement
needed to change. So we changed them for ourselves.”
That’s for sure. So far, The Eternals have released two mind-fucking
full-lengths–including their palindrome-rich 2004 effort Rawar Style–as
well as a flurry of singles on outer-sound giant Thrill Jockey. Up next is an
international tour (including a coveted slot on the All Tomorrow’s Parties’
UK installment), a remix EP featuring badasses like Prefuse 73 and A Grape
Dope and a new full-length, not to mention a new 7” courtesy of Gold
Standard Labs, the Cali-based indie label started by Mars Volta’s Omar
Rodriguez-Lopez.
The incest of the whole thing is enough to make you sweat, but that’s
the way Locks and Montana like it. They’ve got friends left and right in
Chicago’s insanely fertile experimental scene, and they’ve got nothing but
love for them all.
“Chicago is definitely the brain-drain of the Midwest,” explains Locks.
“The best from all around end up here, and I try to interact with every last
one of them. The musicians I’ve met from Chicago have a hard-working
aesthetic like no other.”
www.aesthetics-usa.com
What’s your favorite chicago institution? Wayne Montana: All the great cheap restaurants: Hot Doug’s, El Patosi, Jim’s Grill, Furama, Matsuya, Lula,
Rodan, Podalahnka Damon Locks: The Gene Siskel Theatre, The Logan Theatre (our second run theatre) and Hi Fi Records on Clark Street.
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