Seaweed – “Hard Times” from Actions and Indications (1999 Merge Records)
Let me be direct up front about my desire not to, uh, front: I’m pretty sure I’ve been getting Seaweed and Silkworm and maybe also Seam mixed up in my head for years while retaining songs in my digital music library out of recognition of their importance.
What a dummy.
So I can’t tell you how this song fits into their larger oeuvre, or how production choices made here differ or are consistent with choices made on records released in the decade prior. I don’t know dick about the personnel, only that the band is from Tacoma, Washington in a fertile time for alternative music.
But is that even what this is? “Hard Times,” while neither the traditional American folk song ”Hard Times Come Again No More” nor an ode to the stalwart collectively-run cafe on MInneapolis’ West Bank, is a triumphant power-pop meets punk rock song that makes me want to roll down all my windows and speed down the Pacific Coast Highway. Victorious shouts of “yeah!” that accompany well-time breakdowns, anthemic melodies, and just out and out good playing make this song a banger for the ages.
And that’s that. I’m copping out and rushing this post because it’s Labor Day Weekend, or maybe because I am home recovering from a surgery to repair a hernia that sprouted as the result of an earlier surgery, or maybe it’s just because Seaweed are good as fuck, or this song is anyway, and i don’t want to sully anything with my overwrought bullshit.
Except maybe this, and it’s another connection to my hometown of Minneapolis: based on this tune, one could make the case that Seaweed were the spiritual heirs to the Replacements, and that’s pretty goddamn good.
The Shuffler 