Nashville isn't known for its hardcore, but I think that's why it's all that much more interesting when a great hardcore band emerges from that part of the country, Tennesse, or otherwise. With the stellar visibility that bands like Knocked Loose from Louisville and Enforced from Richmond have garnered for themselves in the past few years, it's clear that hardcore is not, and never was, exclusively the expressive terrain of raging debauchees squatting on the coasts. What I want to pull and pluck here, is the fact that Nashville is not just roughly in the same orbit as the aforementioned petite urban centers of the rural, South-East, but one that already has an established musical identity.
Nashville, if you hadn't heard, is "Music City"! A place where music and live performance thrive. Both kinds! Country and western! I'm doing an old bit, but it's to help get to my point. That is that, as far as, the music industry at large is concerned, certain genres simply do not exist in certain parts of the country. And this brings me to what I love about Nashville hardcore band Thirdface, their sound and message are aggressively counterposed to the very idea that you have an ascribed place and role in society, and that these social fetters should go unchallenged. Thirdface seeks to test the chains that bind us and break them at their strongest link.
While Thirdface's debut album Do It With A Smile certainly poses a challenge to the hierarchy of money and connections both at home, across the nation, and around the globe, they also pose specific criticisms of the liberal culture that presents itself as ally and friend to the underserved and underfoot. The literal midpoint of the album is occupied by song titled "Ally," which lashes out with a purposeful, power-violence push and shin-slicing undercut, that peels off the lambskin facade that covers much of the predatory paternalism, exoticism, and mystification projected onto non-white community members by self-appointed saviors. There is a preoccupation on Do It With A Smile with forcing people to show their true face to you, not surprising, given the substance of the phrase from which the band presumably draw their name.* Songs like the serrated tongue lap of "Local" cutaway at the cozy exterior clout-chasers in midst of communities of color, constructor their toolset for this necessary exorcism out of oscillating tempos, dive-bombing guitar curvatures, and the teeth-bearing bark of Kathryn Edwards's righteously aggrieved vocal performance.
The inherent immorality of having to submit to exploitation and alienation in order to earn the mere opportunity to survive in this world prompts a shuddering cry and heave of emotion on "Buck," while the accumulated trauma of living in a world where you are not wanted finds a cathartic moment of relief on the chop-chord, fry and simmer of "Legendary Suffering," which then transitions into the human-juice splashed, killing-floor foment and break-away groove funk of "No Requiem For The Wicked." The album enters its final act in two parts, beginning with the death-rattle rumble and metallic hardcore super-crush of "No Hope," and closing with the precipitous, chasm-fodder tumble of "No Relief," which with an abrupt, terra firma smearing stop.
Thirdface's fight is against the remorseless political proponents of white supremacy and brute-force accumulation, as well as those shallow, self-serving allies whose thin gruel of flattering social media posts and luke-warm, HR-coached empathy are meant to sustain the segregated underclasses when they are faced with real questions of survival. In putting the talons to these deserving foes, Thirdface finds the strength to bolster their resolve from some very relatable sources. On the brick-breaking thrash of "Chosen" the band envisions themselves as the inheritors of Buffy Summers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's brawn. Later, on the flexing grind of "Villians!" they take up the moral certainty and clarity of intent that defines the character of Kenshiro of Fist of the Northstar. In enbibing the wisdom and fortitude of these archetypal characters, Thridface has tapped into an ancient secret of art and storytelling, passed down between generations for millennia, but which has been needlessly marred by the reactive criticism of post-modernity. Some truths are self-evident, but somethings it doesn't hurt to spell things out. When it comes to the nourishing quality of a narrative, the particulars of a hero's story, the plausibility of their circumstances, and motivations for their quest are ancillary to their ability to inspire us with their resilience, cleverness, and sense of purpose.
Whether you realize it or not, you are the hero of your own story as well as its author. To accept the call to adventure, is to accept the invitation to life itself. However, you will need a guide. One who will teach you their skills so that you can deploy them as required in the battles that lie ahead. You bring the values and set the destination, and if you learn the right lessons, take them to heart, and move with confidence, you might one day find yourself succeeding in your battle against the forces of evil, and once more, doing so with a smile on your face.
Get a copy of Do It With A Smile on Exploding In Sound Records here.
