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Under Surveillance

by Terminus Victor

/
  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Originally released in 2005 on Innocent Words Records, "Under Surveillance" was included in the top 20 albums of the 2000-2010 decade in the Champaign-Urbana region. Several of the songs from this album are timeless and still enjoyed by fans and the band at live performances.

    "The record reveals a texture and tunefulness that may have been overshadowed live by the sheer volume of their sets. The Touch and Go influence still hangs heavy on Under Surveillance, but on "A Scream in the Park" Kimble's voice cuts through the mix during the verse to reveal an approachable melody, and King's guitar is more atmospheric than abrasive. "Your Nemesis" is ready for radio airplay (it did get some spins locally) and highlights the duo's capability of penning a memorable chorus. They eventually kicked [drum machine] "She" to the curb and added a human [Wathen] on drums, but for six years Terminus Victor toiled in the trenches as a two-man, one-machine wrecking crew and one of C-U's heaviest bands." –Doug Hoepker

    Includes unlimited streaming of Under Surveillance via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ... more
    ships out within 3 days

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

1.
wipe off that condescending smile as if no one is worth your while you have no right to shut them down just because you think you own this town it must get boring to think everyone is wanting what you have throw out those autographs, amphetamines and unimpressive swag seems you've missed out on your denial last time i checked i was on trial and you think you've got this figured out but your talk only reveals your doubt it must get boring to think everyone is wanting what you have throw out those autographs, amphetamines and unimpressive swag such a useless abduction
2.
Communicate it's our mistake that we so often make to finally get along you're out of time to change your mind and we so often find it's hard to admit you're wrong communicate it's our mistake that we so often make to finally get along you're out of time to change your mind and we so often find it's harder to... get out of debt it's not what you make it's what you break to simplify your ways in order to be strong i'll drink my wine if you don't mind because you won't make the time or you just wait too long it's not what you make it's what you break to simplify your ways in order to be strong i'll drink my wine if you don't mind because you won't make the time to finally... get out of debt i would for you
3.
stuck in your dogma state lost within the family raid angry because you're afraid that they will see the mess you made just in! you lost the war can't believe you're still this sore must be i'm from the north you're blaming me when the problem's yours how did i get myself into this i just let them pull me in how did i end up here in their melodrama you've been told nothing more than what you want to hear how did i get myself into this i just let them pull me in how did i end up here in their melodrama you've been told nothing more it's just your chemical relief it's been known that rumors spread like viruses i don't care where they are met i want to know where they begin stuck in your dogma state lost within the family raid just in! you lost the war that was fought so many years ago can't believe what you've been told
4.
you're taking the long way home again down and out with no promises you always said you needed some new friends but i never thought that it would be the end you've been working somewhat late again that's what it takes if you want to bartend you can't expect to solve everyone's problems i always said to listen as a friend it's a lonely grave it's not that i won't ever pretend you witnessed this day i'm taking the long way home again down and out with no promises i should of just made you stay home (no problems) when i discovered the place where you were found dead it's a lonely grave it's not that i won't ever pretend you witnessed this day
5.
you're all so addicted for always wanting what they have and in the end you'll finally understand it's not what they have it's what they lack like to clone myself and fill this place until it's packed to show you how it looks when all they bring in is their friends imagine that you make a bad impression i'm so far ahead of you i'm standing right behind you now i work harder than you could ever know and that's a fact remember that i'd like to clone yourself to show you how you always act when you kiss them just where they want it on their... you make a bad impression
6.
Your Nemesis 04:13
you're so critical for always pointing out everyone's mistakes which makes you cynical because you don't think they know the right path to take to be respectable you don't even know that it comes off fake well it's so typical but i'm not surprised, you all act the same the evidence shows you're headed for an early grave i thought you should know your nemesis knows just what it takes to be afraid the evidence shows you're headed for an early grave i thought you should know your nemesis knows just how to make you live that way you're so in control for always mapping out every move we make which makes you difficult you always wonder why we will never stay to hear your political point of view that no one could ever shake well it's identical to every single trait that you said you hate the evidence shows you're headed for an early grave i thought you should know your nemesis knows just what it takes to be afraid the evidence shows you're headed for an early grave i thought you should know your nemesis knows just how to make you live that way
7.
what do you want from me? i've taken care of your needs and i have some needs myself that you don't see why do you call on me to take care of everything that you could just do yourself? Dependency
8.
i'm screening all calls and i'm laying low and it's throwing you off because you think you know think you're hot on my trail? you're not even close no you'll never find me because i'm a walking ghost i know you're all the same (i'm under surveillance now) you live off my mistakes i know what i'm doing but you don't think so soon you're going to find out just who's in control think you're hot on my trail? you're not even close no you'll never catch me because i'm a gypsy soul i know you're all the same (i'm under surveillance now) live off my mistakes
9.
i've got no action i've got no play but you've got your reasons you want me to stay so i'll just sit back here while you lose your way but don't expect me to have anything to say i know reactions and i know their game i've got this vision that they can't explain i've got no money but i won't complain because i've taken my chances and i'd do it all again i've been to places that have no name along with faces that all look the same so i think i'll stay here while you go your way because i've been where your going which leads back this way i know reactions and i know their game i've got this vision that they can't explain i've go no money but i won't complain because i've taken my chances and i'd do it all again
10.
you're overrated because you have friends you're overrated because you've got lots of them you're overrated because you have friends you're overrated because we know it's all just pretend and you never know when to quit you better take it because it's just a trend you better take it because they're willing to spend you better take it because it's just a trend you better take it because we know it's just about to end and you never know when to quit do you?

about

Originally Released in 2005 on the former Innocent Words Records.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Juxtaposition of Terminus Victor
… a biography

Duality makes for great superheroes and great rock bands.

However, let me backtrack a bit. For the past 15 years the local music community in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois has banded together for a benefit dubbed “The Great Cover-Up”. In years past Poster Children have performed as Elvis and the Who, Hum was Led Zepplin, the Moon Seven Times did Alice Cooper one year and Van Halen another. You get the idea.

“I’m sure a lot of people were, like, whatever, but it was something I just had to do,” Scotty Kimble says.

His band, Terminus Victor, chose to cover Slint in 2004.

Standing in the snow a month later, wearing his omnipresent wool hat and fingerless gloves, Scotty cuts a decidedly Dickensian figure. He half-smiles and, in a barely audible voice, mumbles, “Maybe we should’ve done something else, but, oh, I don’t know…I just felt like I had to try.”

Herein lies some insight into what sets Terminus Victor so far apart (and, by the way, immensely above) a vast majority of the current crop of indie rockers vying for the attention of the punk-pop- “fence-post”-modern set.

Allow me to digress even further. Having spent four decades in the Midwest (and 20 of those years in the music “business”) I have come to realize two of the primary architects of this time zone’s rock music are Cheap Trick and Steve Albini.

Like Albini’s breakthrough rock act, Big Black, (the also drummerless) Terminus Victor explore/exploit the notion of combining man and machine. Human vocals backed by a ferocious mechanical back beat.

The difference being Albini’s ego would not allow him to be anything but cocksure and as cold and unyielding as his Roland drum patterns while Kimble, on the other hand, often seems vulnerable; eschewing logic for gut instinct (Slint? A sold-out venue and the guy play songs only Rose Marshack and seven other people have ever even heard?).

Duality. Only so much can be planned, written in advance. Only so many issues can be rationalized and understood. The passion is not manufactured angst. Unlike the cartoon characters Albini creates Kimble’s songs come from not from his imagination, but somewhere deeper within.

Which brings me to Cheap Trick: brilliant, dangerous, popular, rock deities, rock oddities often melding sing-along melodies with disturbingly creepy lyrics. Gods and Geeks, pretty boys and punks, geniuses and savants. Christ, it was as if a chunk of your high school class were all represented in one four-piece, guitar-rock combo.

Within Terminus Victor the metaphor is even more economical. Guitarist Don King (nattily adorned in crisp, business formal attire) grinds out molar-rattling chords while flailing about the stage like a scarecrow in a twister portraying both the straight man and the jester to Kimble’s post-grunge anti-rockstar.

Duality.

There have been an assload and a half of popular bands come out of Champaign-Urbana. There have even been a few good ones. I have seen literally hundreds of those bands (and thousands of from elsewhere) and rarely does one give me the impression it is anything beyond what I believe them to be.

Cobain was a kid from Aberdeen who dreamed of rock stardom. Once he was a rock star he realized he just wanted to be a kid from Aberdeen. Dylan was a folk singer who went electric (as well as a Jew who went Gentile and back again). Duality.

Bun E. Carlos and Rick Neilson were a chubby guy and somewhat of a weirdo from Rockford, Illinois.

Steve Albini was a kid who grew up in Missoula, Montana, loved to play baseball and planned on getting a degree in journalism in college.

Peter Parker. Bruce Wayne. Clark Kent. Duality.

Kimble and King, too, remain a paradox.

Which is precisely why they belong on the long list of popular bands…and remain on my short list of good ones.

-- Don Gerard, July, 2005.

Scott Kimble and Don King are C-U's odd couple: Don, clean-shaven and well kempt in a suit and tie; Scott, in grungy black, a wool hat pulled low over his brow, his face scruffy. Visually, the pair embrace the Cheap Trick dichotomy; musically, however, they favor another northern Illinois institution, Big Black. In 2005, the guitar-bass duo was backed by a hostile drum machine (simply named "She"), which added the fitting touch for a band playing industrial rock at a deafening level. Terminus Victor's live show at this time was so intense — loud, bright, heavy on the senses — that it often scared away a good portion of the crowd, many of whom opted for slightly quieter, distant corners of the venue. For those who stuck around for the show, a point was driven home: Terminus Victor did its own thing, bystanders be damned. And by the time Under Surveillance, the band's second record for Innocent Words, came out, they were balancing the propulsive low-end of their music with more melodic leads on guitar and vocals. The record reveals a texture and tunefulness that may have been overshadowed live by the sheer volume of their sets. The Touch and Go influence still hangs heavy on Under Surveillance, but on "A Scream in the Park" Kimble's voice cuts through the mix during the verse to reveal an approachable melody, and King's guitar is more atmospheric than abrasive. "Your Nemesis" is ready for radio airplay (it did get some spins locally) and highlights the duo's capability of penning a memorable chorus. They eventually kicked "She" to the curb and added a human on drums, but for six years Terminus Victor toiled in the trenches as a two-man, one-machine wrecking crew and one of C-U's heaviest bands. –Doug Hoepker (SmilePolitely.com)

credits

released September 27, 2005

scott kimble: bass, vocals, drum programming
don king: guitars, technical support

all songs written by scott kimble >>> andrew coon plays acoustic drums on "safety in numbers" >>>
vocal samples on "viewers like you" by cecelia kimble, rob mccolley and rozzi ? >>> recorded and mixed at great western record recorders with matt talbott >>> produced by matt talbott and terminus victor >>> mastered at private studios with jonathan pines >>> artwork by brittany bindrim >>> thanks to richie miske for the song title "a scream in the park" >>> band photos by brian paris >>>www.terminusvictor.com

we would like to thank
our families >>> troy michael and the staff at innocent words >>>david and debra domal >>> matt talbott >>> brittany bindrim >>> budweiser tru music live>>> Marni Banker - Legacy Marketing Partners>>>andrew coon >>> rob mccolley >>> spencer vonderheide >>> steve lamos >>> aimee rickman >>> ward gollings >>> brian paris >>> bob henn >>> aaron mccallister >>> jimmy myer >>> holly rushakoff >>> todd j. hunter >>> don gerard >>> jason and julie taylor >>> brian robertson >>> jon may >>>tom bertucci >>>poster children >>> quatre tete >>>menthol >>>all the venues who booked us>>>radio stations who played us>>> magazines that wrote about us>>>all the bands we have played with >>> special thanks to you for listening and supporting us

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Terminus Victor Champaign, Illinois

"Their particular brand of Alternative Rock shakes the rafters in order to convey their reality, and it works."
–Jeff Zolito (smilepolitely.com)

"The easiest way to describe them is plainly a wall of sound. These guys hit you like a tidal wave and when the song ends, you are left wanting more."
[-Brian Campbell]
... more

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