The Sky Corvair - Unsafe at Any Speed - Divot

Review by: Jennifer Perkins

The Sky Corvair is to Midwestern Emo as Temple of the Dog is to Grunge. A super group that represents a whole genera. There is no way to review The Sky Corvair without prefacing everything with some band lineage. Singer/guitar player Tim Kinsella while playing with The Sky Corvair was making a name for himself with Cap’n Jazz and later went on to form the recently defunct Joan of Arc. Bob Nanna then showcasing his percussion talents had come from a band called Friction and later went on to a band you might have heard of called Braid, which is now Hey Mercedes. Kevin Frank and Neil Sandler are affiliated with a little old band called Gauge and many of its off shoots. Now if those names don’t wet the mouths of music aficionados like a bell to Pavlov’s dogs, I don’t know what will.

Your next question may be: why are you reviewing material that is 7 years old? Well because due to a simple marketing principle called supply and demand Chicago based Divot records has repressed The Sky Corvair’s Unsafe at any Speed. The bigger the bands these guys have gone onto get the more desirable The Sky Corvair becomes.

Unsafe at Any Speed sounds pretty much like what you would expect from all of these guys. If you had to pick one of the bands it lends it’s self to most it would be Braid. However, it is hard to think of anything besides Cap’n Jazz when Tim Kinsella takes the mic. The quality of this disc may not be what you are used to or what you were expecting, although it has been digitally re-mastered. Vocals are understated and the recording is poor. Musically, it is exactly what you were expecting. Lots of starts and stops shifts in momentum between soft quiet break downs and loud obnoxious screamy segments. All the elements that made up the music of the Midwest in the 90’s all rolled in to one.

The Sky Corvair's main selling point is one in the same with its major character flaw. Most people who are interested in this band, especially those interested 7 years later, are familiar with these guys previous and current musical endeavors. While this brings attention to the band, it is also the bands undoing. People listening to the Sky Corvair expecting to hear something as good as Hey Mercedes or Joan of Arc are going to be disappointed. Yes, The Sky Corvair is a separate entity but, knowing what we know about who these band members are the power of comparison is too great for us to resist. Each of the musicians seem to be stronger in their individual projects as opposed to when they join forces.

The Sky Corvair’s Unsafe at any Speed is one of those records that should be in every good Indie kids collection. Not because it is necessarily quintessential, but just because it is an excellent record with plain old good rawkin’ songs. No, it is not Braid or Gauge, but it is The Sky Corvair and that is equally impressive in its own right.

Read where Divot records got their name from here.

Read where Braid got their name from here.

Read a review of Hey Mercedes here.