Balms, "Behind Bars" / "Sword"
The Bay’s own Balms; press photo courtesy of the band.
While this publication and myriad other journos have long documented the dream fabric materials utilized by the Bay Area's artists from the oughts and 2010s; San Francisco Balms currently reside as the designated torch bearers that shine with a guitar-graced light as they stand on the precipice amidst the marble statues of future, present and past. Today they present a first listen to the b-sides “Behind Bars” & “Sword”; both recorded back in 2016 with Jack Shirley during the sessions for their lauded album Mirror. The trio of Jared Padovani, Michael Ascunsion and John Kolesnikow together bridge layers of mood, emotion and earnest expression where raw and coarse sentiments are catapulted into a smoky haze of electric fog that moves like a maudlin body of vapor.
“Behind Bars“ finds the three returning to the 90s playbooks of applying minimalist poetry to stormy guitar symphonies. Balms take abstract concepts of caged wisdom locked away, aching for an institution outside the incarceral industry that breaks up bonds, crushes culture, tears up families, denies justice and redacts passages of truth and light. Serving as a counter-measure to the atmosphere motion toward ascension and redemption — “Sword” swings the pendulum toward the climactic confrontation of doom and heroism like the momentous apex of a Criterion blessed Kurosawa classic. Balms tackle mortal notions of death and the immortal valor of dignity as the guitars churn and burn like an orchestra of growling combustion engines; chugging and turning in time. No matter the emotive climate of the song, the trio serenely stitches in a helix of harmonies that shine a wide-eyed sense of hope and light in a world consumed by perpetual night.
“Behind Bars” / “Sword”
“Behind Bars”
take me far, back before this even started
I got one thing wrong, no one's got a way to solve it
when you’re behind bars
behind bars
thin white gloves, pummeling the wooden stake
into the darkest dove
no one's got a way to solve it
when you’re behind bars
behind bars
mourning of, heaven is a place you're praying
to the one you love
one you love
“Sword”
fall
fall on the sword
see what you've done to me?
see what you've done
I will clean my hands off on your body
on your, on your body
reach right through me—god, I want your
sword, I want your sword
something's happening—god, my body's torn
I want your sword
emergency escape
oh, you wanna run to the sun, you wanna find a way out, you wanna go
emergency escape
oh, find a way to gather every single thing you know what you want, you wanna go
emergency escape
on your body
Balms' b-sides "Behind Bars" / "Sword" are available now via Bandcamp and everywhere.
Proceeds from this release will be donated to the CCF Wildfire Relief Fund.
Cover art for the "Behind Bars” / “Sword” b-sides; courtesy of the artists.