[image-1]

Javelins
Look To Cause A(nother) Big Scene

Even outside of music,” Javelins bassist Julian Wettlin says, “we are still best friends for life.” And that aptly captures the palpable chemistry of Detroit’s post-punk/indie-rock/frenzy-dance trio (with drummer/vocalist Matt Rickle and guitarist Matt Howard). The project, which birthed from musical noodlings between Wettlin and Rickle during their fresh-outta-high-school-experimental days, started in 2002.

“Man … six years,” Rickle says, looking back. “We didn’t start playing shows until 2004 though … we’ve been working at our own pace … quite a bit of time off here and there.”

Indeed, Rickle and Wettlin have had their lives, both Javelins-based and personal, taken over by tenures as rhythm section for their friends Thunderbirds Are Now! throughout ‘06-’07. Rickle joined in early ‘06 to help record an album, Make History, and then Wettlin came aboard in early ’07 — in time to help them tour. ”Well … it slowed down for a bit,” concurs Wettlin of their main project, “now we’re back!” Since releasing the stellar onslaught No Plants Just Animals EP in ‘05 (Suburban Sprawl Music) and touring extensively, Javelins took something of a break; Howard went back to school while Rickle and Wettlin toured with TAN! through ‘06 and ‘07.

With TAN! coming home from album-support tours, Javelins, who have a new album ready and, undauntedly, energy for more touring, “can have our turn again,” Rickle says. “Vicious cycle, you see?”

The powerful trio is flat-out virtuosic in the realm of danceable post-punk and left-field, flyin'-hard, shredded indie rock, with propulsive rhythms and inventive percussion style (fierce and flitted while Rickle also tackles lead vocals), with wavy, space-toned guitar contortions that show measured delicacy winding into firestorm feedback and slick, solid bass lines ever-stomping forward like rolling thunder.

Each Javelin excels in his own musical contribution to form a mix of whirled drones, crashing crescendos, agile rhythms and weirdly-hooky melodies with scream-sing vocals working away from any math-rock trappings and leaning closer to ‘80s new wave pop (still altered with a rough punk hue).

With No Plants and a split-EP with theatric-quirk-folksters Anathallo, both released in ‘05, Javelins next release, the Heavy Meadows LP was their next adventure. “We decided to let our ideas run rampant,” says Rickle of Meadows. “With [No Plants] we stayed within the confines of what the three of us could do. What you saw live is what you got on record. That was fun, but now we are older, fatter, wiser and chock-full of ideas. If we wanted harpsichord or a trumpet, we did it.” Javelins invited friends for contributions on Meadows, which was written with more coherent structures. “[No Plants] is pretty scatterbrained at times, which was intentional,” says Rickle, “but we have more pop sensibility now.”

While Plants was recorded in a basement, Meadows got the souped-up studio treatment, in west Michigan’s Key Club recordings (with Bill Skibbe and Jessica Ruffins).

“It’s the best way to see/hear how you have grown as a musician,” Wettlin says of the recording. “It was also the first time I really felt a little scared, nervous and excited about putting out a record, because No Plants came out and no one really knew who we were, and now, judging by our Myspace profile, we have a few people ready for our record.”

Wettlin quips that “Rickle and I are a de-facto version of Trevor Naud and Dan Clark,” referencing their comrades, the dual-vocalists and instrumentalists from Zoos of Berlin, as both duos mirror each other in their longtime friendships and collaborations. Picture the barely-post-pubescent Rickle and Wettlin listening to Coolio’s "Gangsta’s Paradise" on cassette together in their minivan carpools as the genesis of Javelins. “That’s when we started listening to music together,” Wettlin says. “That morphed into going to every show in Detroit that sounded awesome, to us forming a band and playing and practicing everyday.”

After forming some "high school bands," they played out consistently and met other musicians, which led to them stealing Howard away from his own subsequent band. “From what I remember, [Howard] did not say much,” Wettlin says of their first meeting, ”but when he got around people he knew, he would turn into the funniest person ever. After a few months of almost laughing to death and seeing him play, we knew we needed this guy for Rickle and I’s new band.”

Some lineup changes followed, but Howard stayed on board. The EPs came out and, Wettlin says, “Rickle and I never said anything outright, but we knew we had found our third part to complete our brotherhood. [Howard] came from a different background musically, (you know, those bands like The Beach Boys, Beatles, etc.) which made for an interesting first record. Now, we are all on the same page musically.”

The approach, soft and calming, intricate musicality blended with breaking point levels and noise-shredded crescendos (seen in their distinctly steady but erratic live shows), has changed over the years, with the trio having grown together, developing a shared musical vision (Meadows), less ramshackle but still pure energy.

As Javelins rev back up this spring, future plans include:

Wettlin: “Help be a part of recreating Detroit’s music scene into something that everyone’s gonna have to pay attention to.”  

Rickle: “[Releasing] Meadows and tour, tour, tour. Watch loads of The Wire, scour the Internet for details of Jim O’Rourke’s new record and win the title of Best Band in Detroit 2009 by RDW.”  | RDW

Javelins • 3/23 • The Pike Room

© Copyright by RealDetroitWeekly.com