I feel like we’ve used the term ‘supergroup’ a bit too much around here of late (i.e., like, three times), but E is truly worthy of the title – at least to me and likely many others who spent much of the ’90s rattling around the rock clubs and loft spaces of Boston, Allston, and Cambridge. I could probably write a book – or at least a long, rambling essay, you know the kind that goes along with a recipe for kung pao broccoli that you just looked up online and why do you have to scroll so damn long just to get to the actual recipe, what does this person’s neighbor’s dog have to do with broccoli? – about what the mere existence of this band means to me. But then you’d get sick of scrolling before I got to the song itself, so I’ll just say that in Gavin McCarthy (Karate), Jason Sidney Sanford (Neptune), and Thalia Zedek (Come), the band E is composed of some of my very favorite musicians from a part of my life that contains some of my very favorite music. And it turns out they’re still making some of my very favorite music!
Let me be clear: “Any Information” (the title track from E’s forthcoming EP) is a JAM. After a quick four-bar march intro Gavin drops in with a steady, propulsive beat and never lets up, while Jason and Thalia’s guitars play off each other in a delightful manner, one bringing frenetic percussive attacks, the other bringing more melody and texture, occasionally unifying into a wall of trebly mayhem, both players also adding layers of noise from radios and other devices – and somehow I never even miss the bass. (This is not something I often find myself saying.)
It’s not all fun and games, though: The lyrics, delivered in a clipped rush of hushed urgency, are simple and repetitive, but communicate so much about this moment (both the broader moment we’ve been living through for some time, and this exact moment in history): in seemingly every aspect of our lives, information is so important, reliable information so hard to get. I don’t know when these words were written or what was on the mind of their writer, but hearing this song on February 24th and 25th, 2022, I can’t help but hear a refugee pushed across a border by forces beyond their control, or a helpless observer doomscrolling from across the globe, seeking information, any information at all: “any information that you have about my brother, any information that you have about this place.” It’s a darkly compelling counterweight to the rollicking noise it accompanies.
I am far from an impartial observer here: I was an instant fan of this band before I heard a note. That said, each successive release of their has only solidified that fandom and given me more reasons to keep listening. E is touring Europe this spring. If you live in or near one of these countries, go.