Drive Like Jehu - first album demos & live KXLU 1933 (R.I.P. Rick Froberg 1968-2023)

"NO!" I thought.  That was this past Saturday night when I learned of Rick's passing. How could a (seemingly, anyway) healthy 55 y/o male just drop dead in his sleep, much less someone who so strenuously and consistently contributed to my soundtrack (angsty as it sometimes is) since I was a teenager?  Perhaps Rick Froberg (aka Rick Farr or Rock Fork) had already reached the peak of the mountain in terms of artistic endeavors, but this was certainly an unfinished life. And he contributed to so many of our lives, fourfold in some cases, if you were an aficionado of his quartet of music endeavors Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes and Obits. Rick was a singular visual/graphics artist as well, somehow translating his mangled sonic splay on tape to the canvas. I'm not about to tell you any personal stories because I don't have any, nor do I have time to critique his fairly robust catalog, so will you settle for a few random thoughts?

Most Froberg devotees got on board with Jehu, but I was lucky enough to start with the first building block, the lovingly sinewy and dexterous Pitchfork, not from being a fan in their native San Diego, circa 1990, but rather via a review of their posthumously released Eucalyptus, possibly in a Alternative Press or Option. From what I recall a reference to Superchunk was all it took to have me bounding through the door, but there was so much more waiting in the wings.  Pitchfork's math-rock smarts, artful underpinnings and sheer technical finesse slowly unfurled upon each subsequent listen of Eucalyptus, to the extent that I soon became thoroughly rapt. Quite literally this was music that I had never encountered before...or would again.

By the time they were put to pasture in mid-90s, Froberg's Pitchfork bandmate John Reis was the prime-mover in the considerably more visible Rocket From the Crypt, yet he would soon be splitting his time with Rick's next endeavor, Drive Like Jehu. Not unlike Fugazi, DLJ forged their own indigenous and incendiary stripe of punk, possessing unwieldly dynamics and an altogether startlingly vicious m.o. that tended to make Pitchfork sound like something of a warmup in comparison. In the wake of Rick's passing, it's been stated numerous times online that he "found his voice" in Jehu. Equal parts catharsis, indignation, and vulnerability it can truly be said that his trademark timbre tapped something deep from the human condition. In terms of the band proper, Jehu were bejeweled with rancorous intent, often recoiling mere inches before careening off the edge of a cliff like umpteenth scenes in a Warner Bros. cartoon. And may I remind you, this band was responsible for perhaps the most uncompromising and commercially unaffected major label album ever, 1994's Yank Crime.  

I could speak volumes on Hot Snakes as well, but since this post only concerns recordings circa DLJ, I'll draw to a close here. The musical portion of this presentation concerns an early set of demos cut in 1990 for the first album. While I can only offer MP3s of those tracks, I'm giving you a lossless option for the live session they tracked for L.A.'s KXLU in October of 1993, which at the time found them previewing key tracks from Yank Crime.  As frustrating as Froberg's passing is, he leaves behind a devastatingly visceral legacy.

1990 demos - Hear

01. O Pencil Sharp

02. Turn it Off

03. Spikes to You

04. If it Kills You

KXLU FM 10/25/93 - MP3 or FLAC

01. New intro

02. New Math

03. Golden Brown

04. Do You Compute

05. Luau

06. Bullet Train to Vegas