The Vehicle Birth - Tragedy

Tragedy was the one and only album released by the DC/Boston based band The Vehicle Birth. The album which was originally self-released by the band sometime around 1997 was later re-released by Crank! Records in 1998. The band would break up the following year while on tour, playing their last show in Portland. While it may be the bands single album, they sure made it count as it definitely is an overlooked gem within the math-rock/post-hardcore set. I think back to around 1998 and I remember a lot of the music that was becoming popular at the time and a lot of it wasn’t terribly good. I imagine Tragedy suffered the unfortunate circumstance of coming out when music was taking a bit of a shift and music similar to that of The Vehicle Birth was becoming rarer. Regardless, it still doesn’t really explain why a record like Tragedy doesn’t get its due.

The Vehicle Birth was a five piece that had originally formed in Fairfax, VA but later made the move to Boston, MA. They played shows with Dismemberment Plan on a number of occasions and were friends of the band. Unsurprisingly Leigh Thompson of The Vehicle Birth now plays in the band Statehood with former members of the Dismemberment Plan. But anyway, The Vehicle Birth’s music was a culmination of many things in a way. They had the odd/uneasy post-rock slant down to about every detail. Singer and guitarist Timothy James’ muttered rambling styled vocals were taken to the extreme in comparison to any similar acts that had come before them. What made The Vehicle Birth so special in my eyes though was the way their songs could go back and forth so easily. The buildups for the songs that rely on them are extremely well thought out allowing for all sorts of tension. Along with all of that though the band still shared a bit of the DC post-hardcore sound in which their roots lied. Songs like “Marathon” and “Yankeedom” are more straight forward not relying as inherently on the whole soft/loud approach, or just deceptively soft in some cases. Whatever the case may be, Tragedy is a record that shouldn’t be passed over when thinking about some of the finer math/post-hardcore releases during the 90’s.

The Vehicle Birth – Marathon [MP3]
The Vehicle Birth – 23 [MP3]

Now day’s member Leigh Thompson can be found playing in Statehood as earlier mentioned, Jeff Galusha can now be found in Certainly, Sir, Timothy James is currently in the band The Movies, Christopher Jackson played in the band Cracktorch for a bit, while member John Stephens can be found doing the solo thing as John vs. Anti-John.

For those interested in picking up Tragedy, which I strongly urge people to do, it can be had over at Amazon for basically any other online retailer. For those looking to go the digital route it also available on Emusic. Enjoy!