Hark! It's a Crawling Tar-Tar: Socio-political hardcore redefined

Sun, 03/23/2008 3:06 PM  |  Entertainment

Hello boys and girls and those who have yet to decide* It's time again for another super chunky bite of Underground Hum, your weekly indie music column focusing on scenes here in Indonesia and the ASEAN region. Now with extra chewy nougat* Thanks again for the really nifty emails you guys have been sending. Keep them coming.

And now, on to another fresh and juicy installment of Main Stage (now with aloe extract):

Main Stage

Hark* It's a Crawling Tar-Tar is a rather deceptive band. At first glance, some people (lazy listeners with a ridiculous need to immediately compare anything new with whatever is out there, no matter how forced the comparison may be) will immediately lump them as just another Indonesian Hardcore band. But if you listen closely to the way their compositions and lyrics are constructed, you will realize such a quick dismissal is a grave mistake.

This collective, which consists of Ari (vocals), Dede (guitar), Kenji (drums), Uep (bass) and Billy (guitar), is an amalgamation of two now defunct hardcore bands, Tuberculosis and Domestik Doktrin, that had fairly strong followings in the hardcore scene. The melding occurred when Tuberculosis lost its front man and Domestik Doktrin essentially broke up when three of its members left to eventually form Hark* It's a Crawling Tar-Tar.

Concerning their more than slightly off-kilter name, vocalist Ari explained it stemmed from a habit he had back in college of sketching and scribbling down random thoughts and words he had into his notebook. He thought of the tartar control toothpaste he used, and wondered how freaky it would be if the tartar in your mouth came alive and began crawling around your room.

This absurdist imaginative streak is indicative of the highly inventive chord changes and song structures they produce. The songs seem to be constructed in layers, evoking the sense each composition is a house with many rooms, each containing a piece of a puzzle that when put together, culminates in the revelation of the whole picture or the core meaning of the piece.

Their lyrical content, like many hardcore bands, are heavy in social and political messages. But instead of the usual curses toward the government and religion, the music of Hark* It's a Crawling Tar-Tar contains serious observations advocating a sort of mental Cultural Revolution, forcing people to question their own mind-set about things considered commonplace and rise up against the slave mentality that infects the minds of people in third world countries.

For the above reasons alone, anyone interested in music and lyrical content that is decidedly different from anything in the local hardcore scene would be highly remiss in not doing everything they could to get their hands on this music.

You can find out more about Hark* It's a Crawling Tar-Tar and purchase their music at www.thrashsteadysyndicate.cjb.net. You can also email Ari at sniesna*inbox.com to get a copy.

That about does it for this week's Underground Hum. Don't forget to read next week's edition of Reverb.

If you have any questions or suggestions for this column please contact me at undergroundhum*yahoo.com

See y'all next Sunday*

--Paul F Agusta

For all of you indie bands or artists out there, let us know if you have a gig coming up so we can include it in Reverb. Be sure to include the name of the event you're playing, what other acts are billed, time, place, date and entry fee, if any.

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