We’re pleased to bring you the premiere of Teach Me Equals’ music video for their song “Fix History” (watch it below). The song is the title track on their new album, which is being released through Wild Klamath Records. You can purchase the album here.
About the band:
At times fearlessly oblique, and often intentionally challenging, on Fix History Olympia, WA experimental pop / post-classical duo Teach Me Equals craft music at turns intimate and grandiose. The rough-edged shag of found sounds – pioneered by the musique concrète movement and carried forward by German industrial pioneers Einsturzende Neubauten (particularly the expansive minimalism vs abrasive noise esthetic of the early Strategies Against Architecture period) – is balanced by a twisted, precise elegance that simmers and slithers underneath. Gaze into the sonic mudslide long enough and you’ll catch flecks of melodic geodes glinting within the pile of rubble, hinting at a hidden beauty waiting patiently to be discovered.
Characterized by the unorthodox use of electric stringed instruments, live loop manipulation, and textural rhythmic washes, Erin Murphy (guitar, violin, vocals) and Greg Bortnichak (cello, programming, vocals) have been building a reputation for relentless touring and merciless live performances since the 2014 release of their debut LP Knives In The Hope Chest. Murphy and Bortnichak came together as Teach Me Equals in Sarasota, FL in 2011. Living states apart and fronting their own individual projects at the time, they threw caution to the wind and began writing as a duo. They moved onto the road in 2013, and are now semi-based out of Olympia, WA.
In June of 2015, Teach Me Equals teamed with the SHMIB Modern Dance Collective to create a live experience of Knives In The Hope Chest, choreographed for twenty-three dancers. Staged at Chicago’s Links Hall, the series of performances sold out. Later that year, the group appeared on the cassette compilation PNMV#4, celebrating the relaunch of Pacific Northwest indie label, Punk In My Vitamins. In December 2016, they released a split 45 alongside Vern Rumsey (Unwound, Blonde Redhead) titled RedRumsey / Teach Me Equals on Exotic Fever / Dischord, the proceeds of which went to benefit a domestic violence resource center in Philadelphia, PA.
The music for Fix History very much encapsulates the overwhelming anxiety and, at times, sheer terror the band experienced while touring the US over these turbulent past few years. An abstract-impressionist representation of deep, almost inexpressible concerns, the record reflects the seemingly endless trauma so many of us share at this moment in history. Recurring themes of urgency, paranoia, despair, apathy, impossible love, and transformation are played out in songs that deal topically with the looming threat of environmental debasement, loss of human contact due to reliance on technology, and powerlessness brought on by the proliferation of fake news, xenophobia, and the myth of the American Dream.
Brief as it is, Fix History is a fully immersive listening experience that runs the gauntlet of human emotion. Bortnichak writes: “This record is a meditation on the active construction of truth; how that works, who it empowers, and who it oppresses. The title is not a call for heroism, but for conscientious reflection on and formation of the narratives we embrace and disseminate in everyday life. It is a call to question not only where you fit in in the big picture, but how and where you wish to actively mark the canvas itself.”
Connect with the band:
Official Website | Facebook
Top photo by Tom Winchester
