1985: Breaking Circus - “(Knife in the) Marathon”

Breaking Circus were a Midwestern post-punk group initially based in Chicago, though later based in Minneapolis. I acquired their relatively slight discography (two EPs and an LP) secondhand, and I find their first EP, The Very Long Fuse, to be their most interesting — especially its pop song “(Knife in the) Marathon.” Long Fuse is a somewhat scattered EP, with tracks like “Soul of Japan” and “Precision” hitting a sweet spot between Chicago peers Big Black and Naked Raygun, but “(Knife in the) Marathon” is the track I keep returning to, despite being the most unlike anything else in the band’s discography (well, aside from a posthumous single where frontman Steve Björklund makes electro-pop covers of songs by Naked Raygun and the U.K. Subs — but the less written on that, the better).

“Marathon” is essentially a college rock tune, albeit one about an altercation: “an unidentified third world athlete was wrestled to the ground by security,” the song opens. In some ways “Marathon” almost feels like a bizarre parallel to the music of Big Black — the same Roland TR-606 drum machine presence is there as well as the sinister turns of narrative, but the buzzsaw distortion has been replaced by clean 80s jangle. Thus, on one level, “Marathon” is just a hooky 80s indie rock cut; on another level, however, it’s an intriguing juxtaposition between two disparate sounds of the 80s Midwest underground. Okay, maybe they didn’t think of it that way upon release, but given how synonymous with Big Black the sound of a Roland TR-606 can be, it’s pleasingly odd to hear it used in a different (yet not totally dissimilar) context.

Breaking Circus would eventually scrap the drum machine for the talents of drummer Todd Trainer (who would later join Shellac, for those still riding that Big Black parallel), and refine their focus into noisier post-punk for their LP, The Ice Machine. To me, however, the creative off-kilter edge of Long Fuse makes it the band’s most interesting record. Unlike Breaking Circus’ other work, the EP doesn’t have artwork focused around a hammer. This can be heard symbolically — where The Ice Machine can be overly blunt and single-minded, Long Fuse isn’t content to incessantly pound the same ideas over and over. “Marathon” may lack the concrete thud of the band’s punker side, but it shows they had moments where distortion wasn’t even necessary. With its placement on an already scattered (but better for it) EP making it a noteworthy find, Breaking Circus briefly hit a catchy spot between mid-80s Midwestern punk and hooky college rock before quickly shifting off elsewhere.

DeLorean

There’s a lot of good music out there, and it’s not all being released this year. With DeLorean, we aim to rediscover overlooked artists and genres, to listen to music historically and contextually, to underscore the fluidity of music. While we will cover reissues here, our focus will be on music that’s not being pushed by a PR firm.

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