Polecat: High Pressure System
by Matthew Parker

Those of you familiar with Polecat know that they can be difficult to classify. Punk. Emo. Hardcore. The words apply, but don't quite fit. So fuck it. Rock nomenclature has become so overly familiar by this point that it's nearly meaningless; the forest devours the trees. What's important is that this Seattle quartet play with an honest intensity foreign to nearly every other band in the region, and that they've just released an incredible second album, "High Pressure System."

While Polecat's 1999 debut, "40 Hz.", was an impressive debut (you may have heard standout tracks like "B.O.R.B." and the magnificent "J.B. Weld" on local radio), "High Pressure System" is a much fuller, more expansive disc than its predecessor. "It's the machine now," posits singer/guitarist Jesse Fox, who founded a three-piece version of the band back in 1997. "The writing on this album was much more of a group effort. We've got a great new bass player now. Everything's always getting better!"

Brad Woodfin, the group's second guitar and vocalist, agrees. "We took the best from '40 Hz' and built on it to make a more cohesive record."

Recorded in just 3 days at Tacoma's increasingly popular Uptone Studios and engineered by Seaweed's Clint Werner, "High Pressure System" swells and crackles with the power of live performance and minimal overdubs. "We'd practiced hard and knew what we wanted going in," says Fox. "We wanted the record to sound just like the live shows, and beyond vocals and an occasional added guitar, that's exactly what we did."

Anyone who's seen a Polecat show knows that staying true to that spirit is a very good thing indeed. This band does not pose. This band does not try. This band just happens. A single repeating guitar figure is joined by its compliment and hangs, humming dissonantly in the air until, perfectly (but not predictably), they are anchored to the floor by the primal tattoo of drummer Kevin Walter's punished toms and bassist Greg Palmer's shifting, looping low-end. There's an almost zen-like aspect to the performance that is rare in music this loud, forceful and emphatic. The music builds, the players sway, and the audience forgets about everything else.

"Polecat is not background music," says Palmer. "I like to think that we promote active listening."

Active listening has it's rewards. Although at times difficult to decipher, Polecat's lyrics are rich in emotion and metaphor, often evocative of a final conversation with someone you're just about to never see again. "Lighten up/ you won't/ feel a thing/ I don't/ Get set/ We won't try enough/ I know that," sputters Fox in "Workhorse," indicative of the confrontational, last-straw sentiments that underscore many of his lines. "I called you out so many times," he barks in "Red Rover."  "I thought that's
what you wanted."

More self-implicating, less accusational, Woodfin's lyrics are the silver lining to Fox's verbal thunderhead. While lines like "You and me/ but there's no you/ It's just me/ and all my attitudes" (from "Ingestion"), and "I got it from a friend years ago/ She didn't know what a joke I am" ("Cockring"), are barbed and turned inward, there are also reassuring moments of redemption: "But I'm not sorry/ For the first time I am happy/ and my energies are spent in better ways" (also from "Cockring"). Not surprisingly, with the exception of the bombastic instrumental "Six Foot Fist," Woodfin's are the poppiest songs on the record.

"High Pressure System" is out in stores today, 2/29/00, on Sonic Boom Records. Upcoming shows include: Friday, March 3 on Bellingham's Fairhaven campus; Sunday, March 5 at the OK Hotel; and Friday, April 28 at Bothell High School. All of these shows are All-Ages. Tune into the KCMU's Live Room this Saturday, March 4 for a full 55 minutes of the live Polecat experience.

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