Here we have another instalment in that grand series of releases from Baltimore based band The Agrarians. Prolific in a way that most bands can only dream off, The Agrarians release new material with metronomic regularity. This time, it is mostly live recordings and, curiously enough, they sound better here than on their home recorded stuff.
On songs like "Memorialize Another Golgotha", it sounds like the audience as well as the band are having fun. If you want me to explain what the song is about then I have to confess that I am really not sure but, despite the lyrical obscurity to which this band is prone, the live tracks show that they can interact with an audience and that rather changes my previous opinion that Matt Perzinski (the writer of the songs) was a proto serial killer sending mystical messages out to the world prior to some great atrocity. For example, "It's Tragedy We're Making" seems positively accessible, and even commercial, compared to the likes of "To Create A Little Flower is the Labour of the Ages".
Maybe The Agrarians are actually the spirit of a medieval minstrel doomed to walk this earth in a permanent state of allegory. Certainly, the lyrics are often intriguing and more often confusing. Quite what they sing about is more implied than said but you can tell that there is an educated mind behind it all. An enigma of a band without a doubt and a welcome addition to the old CD collection.