Two albums – but they sold 55 million units during their life SPAN. It’s Scuzz Sunday!

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Good Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke and this is “Scuzz Sunday”, our special weekly feature on the blog where we take a leisurely stroll down the memory lane of the ancient Emo-Rock and Pop-Punk releases, taken from between the time of the late-1990’s and the mid-2000’s, to see if these old dogs can still do any tricks – and that’s because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Formed out of the ashes of prior bands, Squid and Explicit Lyrics, Span was a short-lived 4-piece band fronted by Norweigan singer Jarle Bernhoft. You’d be forgiven for not remembering their second album, “Vs. Time”, but their debut LP, “Mass Distraction”, was a sizable commercial hit. At the end of the day, Span still managed to sell over 55 million units of their records worldwide, and they spent a brief period touring in the US after selling out a headline tour in the UK and Norway. They also got to work with big-time producer, Gil Norton (The Pixies, Echo & The Bunnymen, Terrorvision) on “Mass Distraction”, which reached the Top 5 of the Norwegian charts in it’s heyday. So, what went wrong? Well, issues with their label (Island Records) led to US record deals with Geffen Records and Interscope Records falling through, and their debut LP saw an underwhelming delayed release in that market when much of their hype died down. It led to the follow-up only releasing in Norway, and although it did pretty well there, the band decided to call it quits after failing to recoup their costs and momentum in 2005, and the band posted a note on their website to announce this. Let’s relive those days with the single “Found” below.

Regrettably, I think the story of SPAN is a simple one and one that history repeats – it’s simply one of those bands who you cling to in your adolescence, but nobody really knew of them (Hands up those of you who remember “She Might” by Noise Next Door) or had really heard of their break-up (BoyKillBoy, anyone?) and that just closed the lid of can of worms. It’s an amicable situation for the quartet, though, with the band stating they “no longer share a common dream and ambition” and they had “decided to end this while we are still the best of friends” in 2005, and the members have all embarked on decent solo careers in the years since, with Joff Nilsen developing a TV career and Jarle Bernhoft has released numerous solo albums, so none of them were scarred much by the folding of the project. Span obviously had a vibrant Pop sensibility, as you probably noticed when you heard “Found” just a minute ago. The opening of the track reminded me of Foo Fighters, while the deadpan and more psych-driven harmonics of the distorted guitars made me think of Queens Of The Stone Age, and the rapid time signatures made me think of Maximo Park. It was a very contemporary sound at the time, and, for me, it feels like a mis-mash of a few of the era’s most popular groups. The lyrics are steadfast and the words are very hook-led, with an explosive refrain of “Vital information that can not be found” breaking into a Rage Against The Machine-ish guitar riffs that chugs along like a steam engine train on a collision course to Snowdon. The verses are more slower, and veer into basic Hard Rock territory. The verses of “My legs are sleeping, My body is weeping” and “A human disorder/A life on the border, a lack of a plan” are pretty unremarkable, but the themes of mental health are present, and this shows a decent attempt at handling wider issues with a focus on the internal male. The rest of the instrumentation is not minimal, with a duelling vocal from Bernhoft and Nilsen being attacked by a distorted drum part and the similarly trucking bass guitar riff. It feels like something I’d expect to hear on Radio X in the UK, with a very produced sound that just about qualifies as “Indie”. While the overall results are a bit forgettable, it’s an entertaining slice of Emo-centric Rock, with melodic hooks and instrumentation that sounds focused, never quite meandering to the wayside or getting too repetitive. You’d be forgiven for not remembering it, but I think there was talent that was never quite given the right opportunity to flourish here, and I think that a longer run, or a more supported one, for the band, could have encouraged more boldness to succeed.

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Thank you for reading my post on the blog today! I’ve got more in store for you tomorrow, and if you’re a fan of your adventurous Alternative Folk, then I’ve hopefully got what should be a treat for you – with brand new music from a Michigan-originated group who have recently been teasing a new follow-up since their last album, released three years ago, with a collection of live-streamed shows entitled “Alive From Whispering Pines”. Best known for their 2015 hit, “The Night We Met”, which has been streamed over 680 million times after being heavily featured in the controversial Netflix drama series, “13 Reasons Why”. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/