4 out of 5

Label: 12XU

Producer: Steve Albini

Silkworm don’t really have many EPs in their release history, not counting some on-the-sideish discs like the Marco Collins session and a few covers.  Hearing ‘Chokes!’, it’s evident why that might be, whether ’twas a conscious decision or not – it’s just not enough.  The group didn’t really evolve in a traditional sense so much as hone their understanding of what they wanted, meaning that ‘Libertine’ might seem a bit more sprawling than something like ‘Lifestyle,’ and they’re certainly tonally far apart from one another, but there’s no giant reinvention from one end of their career to the other.  And that was part of the appeal.  In the same sense, any given SKWM album evolved over its 40-50 runtime; you might have a favorite track, but they rarely stood alone, rewarding the listener of ALBUMS vs. SINGLES with a full-on rock rush, songs propped up by whichever songs they were sequenced between or around, yet fully written and performed by a wonderfully in-sync group of musicians…  Had ‘Chokes!’ been intended as an EP, then sure, but it’s not.  This is what could’ve been a full album until the untimely accidental death of a band member.  So while I’m immensely thankful that I get to hear this snapshot – and while it contains one of the group’s best, most sing-alongable tracks ever with opener ‘Bar Ice’ – something like the excellent ‘Internat’l Harbor of Grace’, with its gorgeous dual vocals, screams out for more songs to temper the experience.

Besides this ridiculous nit, what’s fun is hearing the roughness of what’s here and imagining whether or not the group would’ve committed to further takes or mixing – like the pleasantly lazy soloing on ‘Low Blow’ or the way ‘Lily White & Cherry Red’s vocals seem undecided at some points.  It can all be part of that live-to-tape feeling that Albini and the group excel(-led) at, or it could’ve just been a sketch for something else.  Who knows?  We also get an interesting mash up of Silkworm eras: ‘Bar Ice’ combining ‘It’ll Be Cool’s meaty beats with ‘Italian Platinum’s poppier momentum; the CCR cover ‘Wrote a Song for Everyone’ is from the ‘Lifestyle’ sessions, apparently, and ‘Lily White’ returns the jangle of ‘Firewater,’ which would’ve been pretty awesome to hear funneled through whatever other ideologies would’ve ended up percolating.

Lastly, we get a live cut from the Crust Brothers, which gives us that warm, misty goodbye for which we might’ve been hoping: it’s a crystal clear recording of a stripped down song that perfectly showcases the raw, fun- and rock-loving roots that drove the band to consistently put out great material.