Rank and File
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Formed by brothers Chip and Tony Kinman after they split up their hardcore punk band The Dils (who recorded the great L.A. punk single “Class War”), Rank and File were, at times, a dazzling roots rock post-punk band that stumbled early in its career, only to flame out much too quickly and finally collapse with an embarrassing thud. Their debut record, Sundown, was a gem of tuneful, Byrds-ian pop, with a healthy dollop of Gram Parsons and Merle Haggard to boot. The Kinmans’ singing was distinctive; they weren’t traditional harmony singers à la the Everly Brothers, but rather sang synchronized upper and lower octaves. The songwriting was wry, heartfelt, and cliché-free; the band (which at the time featured the guitar of the immensely talented Alejandro Escovedo) rocked with gusto, but never bombastically, preferring nuance and subtlety over volume and simplicity. In fact, the Kinmans were so into cowpunk and so far from their hardcore punk beginnings that they even landed a spot on PBS’s revered country music showcase Austin City Limits. The sophomore record, Long Gone Dead, was an excellent follow-up, but the self-titled third album (it’s never a good sign when a band releases a self-titled record three records into a career), recorded three years after Long Gone Dead, was absolutely awful; the songs went nowhere, and the singing and playing, which had previously been so precise and artful, was now buried under a thicket of clichéd hard rockisms. After listening to side one, you knew these guys were done for. Sad, really. In a stunning repudiation of Rank and File’s roots rock style, the Kinmans’ next project was the execrable Blackbird, an ill-conceived try at synth pop that went a long way toward making them laughingstocks.
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The Slash Years
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Sundown
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Long Gone Dead
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Rank and File
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thrash07 wrote:
I saw Rank and File perform like, back in the 80's at a small club in Chicago, they were around before that Country Rock genre really took off.
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Recent Activity
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drszusz, deebeedubble, Ken_Morrow and 1 other person added Rank and File to their libraries. October 2009
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jcshepard unlinked Rank and File from Americana. October 2009
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lifecoachsuzee, craftymod, jsenum and 2 other people added Rank and File to their libraries. October 2009
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TMaltheus wrote about Rank and File in 15 Albums And Comments. August 2009
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akendle, becometheriver, cinnyvs and 2 other people added Rank and File to their libraries. August 2009
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TheOnlyRoc updated the wiki page for Rank and File. (diff) May 2009
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jscully5651, flint26, hmbock and 14 other people added Rank and File to their libraries. May 2009
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dvoodoo tagged Rank and File with chip and tony, 80s and danceteria. November 2008
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SundropKing, guerciotti, popsongz and 3 other people added Rank and File to their libraries. November 2008
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LeroiBrother tagged Rank and File with ‘country rock’. October 2008
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15 Albums And Comments
by TMaltheus |
4 Aug 2009 | Add comment
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