Milemarker - Anaesthetic - Jade Tree

Review by: Jennifer Perkins

The cover of Anaesthetic may be pepto pink and adorned with a perky unicorn, but remember what your mother told you about judging books by their covers. What lies inside is not what the covers implies. You pop the CD in expecting smiles and acoustic guitars and instead you get synthesizers and snide vocals. Milemarker definitely played the irony card, and it grabbed my attention for one.

If you grew up on the darker side of the late 80's and early 90's you are going to relate to this record. Think Nitzer Ebb meets Siouxsie and the Banshees (Damn she practiced those Siouxsie like vocal inflections for "The Installment Plan"). Haunting female vocals (some male ones too) and a gaggle of keyboards. The thing about Milemarker that sets them apart from their Saddle Creek counterparts, The Faint is they have not forgotten their rock-n-roll roots and showcase them. Sure there are a lot of keyboards, but there is an equal amount of guitars oozing with distortion.

Maybe it was Milemarkers move to Chicago that helped them to hone their sound. Chapel Hill, Mecca to standard Indie rock fare, may not have been as conducive to helping them actualize their sound. These kids just want to write punk music that will make people dance, hey wait that sounds all wrong, punkers don't dance. No, that is exactly right, Milemarker is a punk band with a computer degree and keen sense of musical angularity. An odd, but winning combination.

Don't let the pretty pink pony on the cover fool you, Milmarker's Anaesthetic is a brooding and intense listen. Who needs happy go lucky music anyway when there are records like this one to be had.

Read where Milemarker got their name from here.