The Crash
Pony Ride
Rykodisc; 2008
There are host of organizations out there designed to prevent, curtail, and/or put a stop to major forms of abuse that exist in the world. Animals have PETA and the SPCA, the environment has Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, and American citizens have the ACLU, while the rest of the world has Amnesty International – all designed to be the advocates for those who do not have the ability to protect themselves. So, who’s going to come together to protect music fans from crappy retro-cool groups? Granted, it might be a bit over-the-top and ridiculous to compare fan rights abuses human/animal rights abuses (or to even claim that music fans have “rights”), but this music reviewer is tired of subjecting his ears to yet another band’s lame attempts to strip-mine of the past in order to look hip in the present.
Sadly, record labels insist on churning out this schlock for the already deaf and dumb average American music fan, including their most recent offering Pony Ride from The Crash. Hailing from Finland, this four-piece merges together ABBA-aping string samples and keyboard swells with lame, jangling Brit-pop to create a sound that comes across as initially catchy, but becomes increasingly annoying as you realize how derivative it is. Amazingly, this is the type of trendy music that’s perfectly matched for inclusion in commercials that have been demographically matched to the newest chic product: aka you’ll want to throw the remote control through the screen after you’ve been bombarded by it for 2 weeks. The songs are either simpering, overly sweet efforts to pen “Solid Gold”-styled love songs for the ‘00s (“Grace” and “Stalker” come to mind) or barely passable indie pop tracks with faux angst (the title track and “Filthy Flower” are good examples). I’m sure that the four men of The Crash mean well, but these attempts at crafting finger-snapping, toe-tapping pop tunes come across as hackneyed and less than memorable.
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Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies
Bluebird
Breakout; 2008
Do the terms “folk,” “country,” “alt-country,” and their various synonyms mean anything anymore, or have they all been swirled together under the moniker “Americana”? While there are intensely nerdy musicologists among us who could debate the finer lines of separation between those cooperative (and often competitive) genres, it remains to be seen and heard whether or not any musician can set out to perform in one exclusive style without subconsciously dabbling heavily in other related sounds. Even worse are reviews like this one where the writer often make heavy-handed and clumsy comparisons between the music under examination and whatever vaguely related act might be on hand. It’s not that we’re intentionally being lazy with our musical associations, but that there is little overt difference between many of these acts in the current landscape.
One side of this discussion declares that the blurring of such lines is of great benefit, as this has brought together music fans who might never have willingly crossed their imaginary lines of taste. In contrast, others claim that doing so only produces a bland, homogenized scene that’s a shadow of its former self, weakening them all beyond recognition. In the middle stands a band like Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies, willing to embrace the debate with a hearty reverence and able to produce delectable songs that reverberate with strength, swagger, and sensitivity. All of the aforementioned styles find room on the group’s sophomore album, Bluebird, managing to give each ample room to breathe and live. “Your Brother, The Poet” and “Adeline” are lovely, intimate acoustic tracks, while “Over And Again” and the title track ring with the emotional weight of classic country. Across the aisle, “Morning Cigarettes” and “Sophia” evoke the more rock-meets-country aspects of alt-country, and to top it all off, “High School Drugs” and “Glory Hallelujah” would feel right at home on a Pat Green or Robert Earl Keen record. Though some might balk and blanch at the fractured sonic ideas of such a description, Bluebird is a remarkably balanced effort from such a young singer/songwriter and his band – Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies are able to make it work.
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What Laura Says
What Laura Says Thinks and Feels
Terpsikhore; 2008
One of the defining characteristics of classic pop music is its propensity to not take itself too seriously, but still be able to stand up as serious music that can be respected by a serious musician. Yet, without pointing too many fingers, suffice to say that modern pop music has failed the average music fan. From overly slick production tricks to a propensity for cross-platform marketing that’s gone from obnoxious to ubiquitous in the past decade, media gurus have denuded pop music of its inherent sense of playfulness and replaced it with a shtick that resembles fun, but is really a drive for dollars wrapped in a cheap smile. Sure, business types have always sought to make a buck (or a few million) off a talented singer or band, but it’s only in recent years that the artists have truly become willing and complicit participants in the project to reduce good music to only its most marketable components (originality and thoughtfulness be damned).
The result is that bands like What Laura Says fly under the radar of most music fans or, even worse, they’re intentionally ignored, because their free-form approach to music-making is so markedly counter-intuitive to modern trends. This means, sadly, that people who really enjoy intensely joyful song-craft will most likely miss the band’s debut release, What Laura Says Thinks and Feels. This Tempe, AZ five-piece gives equal time and energy to freak-folk ditties, alt-country instrumentation, and pleasing pop palettes, resulting in an album that comes across as uncomfortably scatter-shot on the surface, but is actually a tasty, well-blended musical confection. Led by tracks like the floor-stomping sing-along “Fashionably Moral,” the piano-led “Paradice,” and the crooning “July 23,” and possessing an endorsement from Lou Reed, this music should easily find a home with fans of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Devendra Banhart, and Jana Hunter. Brilliant, esoteric pop music has a new face with What Laura Says.
Download “July 23″
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Perhapst
Perhapst
In Music We Trust; 2008
What’s the quickest way to confuse a drummer? Put a piece of sheet music in front of him. I enjoy that joke because it works on two levels: 1) drummers are frequently accused of not being “real” musicians, since 2) drummers are too dumb to actually learn how to read music. In most bands, the primary function for a drummer is to be the wild and crazy guy who keeps a consistent rhythm as best as possible (thought they’re typically found guilty of either dragging the beat or galloping ahead of the rest of the group). And as important as that task is, drummers are still mercilessly picked on for their supposed lack of talent: they’re not the singer, they’re not the guitar player, and they need the bass player to translate for them. It might not be a fair criticism, but it can be a steady stream of amusement.
Then along comes John Moen with his attempt to dispel those criticisms. Serving as the regular drummer for indie rock stalwarts The Decemberists, Moen spent his most recent time off from to record and release some of his own music under the moniker Perhapst. As Moen performed most of the instruments on the album, the self-titled project showcases his capacity for catchy folk-pop music and is an admirable attempt to display that he has musical abilities in front of a drum kit (granted, having Stephen Malkmus assist occasionally on guitar never hurts). Nevertheless, what works against Perhapst is that is recycles some of the same sonic textures a bit too frequently, most notably the acoustic guitar patterns on “Hyper Planets,” “Cruel Whisk,” and “Alarmand.” A five-song EP containing tracks like “Maryanne,” “Caution,” and “Harbour” might have been a much better choice for an initial release, as it would have provided greater focus in the studio, while still granting Moen key experience as a frontman/lead songwriter. In the end, Perhapst is a passable, albeit bland, collection of songs from a drummer who has proven that he’s not your average drummer; just don’t expect Moen to replace Colin Meloy any time soon.
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Cheap Girls
Find Me A Drink Home
Quote Unquote; 2008
Toss out existentialism, nihilism, postmodernism, and any other system of thought that requires the believer to frustrate themselves and their conversation partner in order to make a point. Drunk philosophy will always reign supreme, especially from those philosophers who know how to drink well (quality over quantity!) and initiate, engage in, and sustain a conversation under their own power. Now, this is not to advocate drunkenness and/or disorderly conduct under the influence of too much alcohol, but more that we come to the realization that a couple of drinks loosens the tongues of even the most tight-lipped, allowing for thoughts, ideas, opinions, and beliefs to flow copiously. Because, as any student of music history is aware, for better or worse, many of the more iconic songs and albums of the past 100+ years have come as a result of the use of drugs and alcohol.
Borrowing from that same formula (and drinking from that same well), Cheap Girls prove on their debut record, Find Me A Drink Home, that they really do know how to imbibe with authority and still hold discourse with a bit of clarity. This power-pop trio from Lansing, Michigan has put together an eleven-song ode to the causes, effects, factors, results, and everything-in-between of youthful substance use and abuse. There’s little to no glamorizing of the behavior here, as the band wears their hearts and emotions firmly on their sleeve, but displays them and the associated experiences with a brazen honesty and guitar riffs blazing. Influences like The Lemonheads and Jawbreaker abound, but what’s more important is that Cheap Girls believe in what they’re singing and the simple-yet-tight pop melodies they’ve crafted. With highlights that include “Kind of on Purpose,” “27 Days,” and “Kill Your Mood,” Find Me A Drink Home is unapologetically romantic, nostalgic, and lovelorn without being tacky, cliché, or boring. Or better said – coherent drunken ramblings over straight-ahead rock-&-roll kicks musical ass.
Download songs from the album here (but please donate if possible)
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