YOUR FUNERAL - I Want To Be You 7'' 1982

"I Want To Be You" is a rare and seminal PostPunk song by the all female band Your Funeral from Denver and consisted of Jeri Rossi (vocals/guitars), Karen Sheridan (bass/vocals) and Cleo Tilde (percussion) and the track was originally released in 1982 on a limited 7Inch and later gained wider recognition through Compilations such as Sacred Bones Records' Killed By Deathrock Vol.1 and is the band’s only official release. These two songs offer a condensed lesson in atmosphere and sonic claustrophobia; their minimalist aesthetic breaks with almost every convention of the classic, stadium ready rock of the early 80s. Instead of opulence, the absolute minimum reigns supreme. Driven by a stoic, almost mechanical drumbeat, the tracks pulse like the unstoppable heartbeat of a fixation. The bass pumps deep, muffled, and hypnotic in the foreground, providing the melodic structure while the guitar deliberately disrupts it. Jeri’s guitar work defines the texture; eschewing warm chords, she employs cutting, cold, flanger-distorted riffs. The notes sound sharp almost like the scraping of metal lending the songs their unmistakable deathrock edge. Her vocals, too, are far from polished or smooth; they possess a raw, almost lethargic urgency, reminiscent at times of early Lydia Lunch, that peers deep into the abyss of the human psyche. The subject matter is not romantic love, but destructive envy and a total fixation on another person. The desire to slip into someone else’s skin to completely erase one’s own identity in order to become someone else becomes oppressively palpable through the song's repetitive structure. It is a psychological portrait of a loss of control. There is no reverb to artificially inflate the sound, nor are there any smoothing effects; everything sounds dry and direct, creating an atmosphere of extreme intimacy. "I Want To Be You" is a prime example of how one need not rely on complex song structures or virtuosic solos to create a musical work of art. Your Funeral required nothing more than a bassline, a cutting riff, and an obsessive idea to craft one of the most atmospheric 7Inches of the entire PostPunk era. There remains the fascinating tragedy of a band that, after just two songs, virtually vanished from the scene. But with this rare beauty, they have immortalized themselves.

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