Sean Madigan Hoen – "We Two Are"

Sean Hoen's presence has loomed large in Southeast Michigan for years. By the time I met him and became acquainted with his bands The Holy Fire and Leaving Rouge, he was already a slightly cleaned-up version of his former bloodshot-eyed, manic persona. Before I moved back to Detroit, Sean had already made his mark fronting the hardcore band Thoughts of Ionesco and was a minor legend for his apeshit antics. It's like this: everybody who came up indie in the '90s has a David Yow (Jesus Lizard) story, and if you came up in Detroit, you have a Sean Hoen story too. In his own words, people didn't go to his shows to hear the music, they went to see Sean lose his shit.

But that kind of self-destructive theater has its limits. And given the choice between keeping up a faked version of the catharsis or moving on to less abrasive forms of expression, Sean chose the latter while keeping it just as articulate and lucid. It's interesting to watch an artist like that not losing the edge, but sublimating it. Like a volcano that teaches itself more subtle forms of eruption. It puts Sean in the great company of ex-hardcore band leaders like Henry Rollins and Ian MacKeye, who I think of as human tuning forks that maintain their tremulous appearance through even the most presentable of aesthetic haircuts.

I love the sound of Sean's voice. It seems like two octaves at once. It has the reedy bite of a tenor, but somehow still seems baritone deep. Maybe it's that whole devils vs. angels thing in his rock'n'roll-as-demonology lyrics. Two versions of the same person – one higher, one lower – meeting in a voice. "We Two Are" is my favorite moment on The Liquor Witch, his first solo album, and has all the requisite qualities of a Sean Hoen song as well as a great title that frames moral schizophrenia in a three-word Zen kohn. It takes its time getting to beautiful places but gradually inflates with reverb, like a giant hot air balloon, before Sean punctures everything with a spectacularly ugly moan.

Sean Madigan Hoen - "We Two Are" [From The Liquor Witch]

Sean on MySpace