Almost Always Never performs delightful schemas to fire new neural pathways
How a rock band gains stardom in the quagmire of flatlined popularity
I once worked with a behemoth of an oak tree stump from Georgia and he could eat Chick-fil-A for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, consistently. And he did.
I once asked him, dude, why?
He, without hesitation as if he knew I was studying his bizarre cult-addiction to what he called jesus-chicken, intuitively informed me that not only is it the best chicken sammich, but it is consistently the best chicken sammich. He smiled, a rarity for the ornery glow worm, and went back to dragging his knuckles on the floor from the relaxed comfort of his cubicle chair.
It was the way he said “consistently” that gave me pause and made me listen. It pulled me in. And just like that, he did it. He showed me how the inside of our brains work, if we idle ourselves into sedation.
The human brain is wired, not just for addiction-induced chemicals in corporate-cooked chicken, but to love and cherish, cling to, and forever not let go of the sure thing. It will win every damn time if left unchecked.
As a retired globe trotter, with both indigenous and colonial spirits influencing my schema, I can testify, through no uncertain terms, New Mexico will annihilate any algorithm that breaks through the firewall of recognizable assimilation or community. The entire state is figuratively and literally, all two million and some change, doing their own thing. Good for them. All of them. This is not slander.
It is a fucking wake up call to the independent live music scene here in the state, going into 2025.
Almost Always Never cut their teeth on the public stage at the same exact time I was cutting my teeth as a writer, covering and promoting music in Albuquerque that moved me emotionally. From jump, AAN had my eye and ear and I had no freaking clue what was going on. So I observed. And was delighted to do so, I must add. I could easily zoom in and understand what they were doing, even though at first, I did not understand their message. The power of their music disguised right before my ears.
Through no fault of the band, I began a delayed side journey of mental and emotional awareness. AAN, along with every other neuro-spicy musician in the state, was introducing me to a language I could understand, but not speak. I began to notice other things about myself and began to ask out. I was about to start a magazine and the moment the seed was planted, it became stillborn and I had to reverse engineer every damn thing to figure it out. I made it a point to make every AAN show; aspiring to sort some things during their live performances (before their album dropped). During that period of my departed discovery, Almost Always Never became a consistent light for me while coming to terms with some shocking stuff going on inside my mind.
Almost Always Never is the consistency a national and global rock band requires for advanced and elevated recognition (beyond the state). They are not only doing the damn thing, they are slaying it. I got to watch them evolve, up close and personal at first, then from a distance when I literally took my brain out of my head and sat it next to me in the passenger seat of my Subaru on a beach in southern california, earlier this year. Once you remove your mind, the body will thrive.
I came back to the state, got settled, took a long deep breath, drove up to Santa Fe and saw perhaps the most brilliant performance yet from Almost Always Never, Stringer’s choice for most consistent neuro-spicy rock band in the southwest. Production of effort and their evolution of sound are arguably unmatched and no one seems to mind much. Boggles my mind how such a creative band can have a profound impact on self image, self sabotage, self love, and all the trickery of the mind, written and performed by the most disadvantaged demographic perhaps in our society of forced and imposed comfort, can go undetected by the general population of complacency.
If you suffer from anxiety, spend a weekend listening to Hey, Disarray. Hell, spend a month listening to it and you still won’t find all the hidden messages the brain intentionally hides from you. Catch a show and take in their new stuff; it’s phenomenal.
Live at Tumbleroot with Mama Mañana Records in Santa Fe, Almost Always Never writes and performs music that fires unused synapses of the uncomfortable. By sheer brilliant design, AAN disturbs the conditioned pathways of thought and perception. They do it with stage production, instrumentation, online content, and in their formidable social media following; and now they are doing it with radiant bouts of vocal harmony, using a wider scope of undetected mind infiltration. It’s all very brilliant in the world of popularized, systematic opinion.
Sadly, it’s absolute gobshite musical artists have to cut their teeth in this state, well passed the expiration of the live music era that oddly hit a brick wall in 2012-ish, creating an invisible force field of public opinion that oddly, freakishly holds today.
The public still thinks “nothing is going on” here in the contemporary arts. Even musicians feel that way.
Me: have you heard this brilliant arrangement of music by Almost Always Never?
NM: I have never heard of them. (Flyer is stapled to the fencepost at head level.)
Me: I know, farmer dan, that’s why I am telling you now. To inform you there is a public gathering in your community and entertainment is provided; may actually give you an insight to the current affairs of the modern trauma of our century. Could help you sleep better at night.
NM: but we don’t wanna be in the new century.
Me: I can see that. Clearly now. That’s why I am informing you that their is music out there; it will help you with all your ignored anxiety and compounding stress; trickery of the mind that could actually cause your heart to explode inside your chest. Try as we may, we cannot stop the advancement of life and the impact it has on our capacity.
NM: but there’s nothing wrong with the way we do it here.
Me: (Blood runs down my forehead, off my nose, and onto my boot.)
NM:…goes back to moving dirt with the dragging boot heel of programmed resistance.
Me: I bid you a good day, old man time. (Leaves the flyer stapled at head level.)
Me to Almost Always Never: your music is refreshingly brilliant and the act is perhaps the most consistent I’ve witnessed in my public journey, parallel, yet unrelated to your own. AAN has mastered consistency in evolution of sound. Not everyone will connect but those who appreciate delicious brain teasers will have endless jollies with both your recorded and live music. That is rare here, I have discovered.
Land of Entrapment they say and no one knows why, but will openly protest human growth in the unfamiliar arts, whether through indifference or with a disheartening slice of organized nepotism; either way all they care about is sales and booze and if they don’t add up, authenticity in humanity takes another blow in the livelihoods of broke and near homeless musicians in our beloved home.
For Almost Always Never, they continue to chip away at the demonic little games, created and perfected by the unsupported complexities of the mind, and they do so with a tether-shearing consistency of first-class performances and experimental arrangements that delight the troubled and confused modern mind. They created and forged their own brand consistency.
For Mama Mañana Records, we are all fighting mass indifference in the world of music, but this project is critical to the awareness and discovery of hidden, or ignored puzzles of the mind. They are clever, cheeky, and brilliantly showcased. Really hope to see them at festivals next year!
Stringer
