SOTD: Hot Water Music- Arms Can't Stretch

This tune is an absolute gem. Before Hot Water Music went on to define the beard-core genre, they were actually a very Jawbreaker/Leatherface influenced "emo" band. "Arm's Can't Stretch" is off one of their early EPs, and was released on their 12' comp Finding the Rhythms. It's such a simple song, yet so wrought with emotion and power in the way only HWM could deliver it.

The reason I love this so much is because it captures a very interesting time in the band's development. HWM were obviously still playing around with the direction they wanted to go in when they wrote this song, as it sounds more akin to Christie Front Drive than any of their later work (even the stuff of FFTHG, when they still sounded pretty "emo"). One of the coolest challenges of being a musician is stepping outside your comfort zone to find "your sound." Hearing a band so clearly experimenting with their direction is really neat, especially when their later work sounds completely different. It's also really neat when that experimentation is as well executed as this song is. It makes you wonder, what if...