Dryvetyme Onlyne

Rodeo Ruby Love
Vs. The Great American Cities
Crossroads of America; 2008

Different regions of America, whether we admit it or not, tend to produce similar strains of music. For instance: this reviewer grew up on the Upper Gulf Coast of Texas, an area of the world known for producing more than a few illustrious musicians in the fields of country, blues, rock, and hip-hop. There’s a certain proletarian sound, a level of working-class grit that comes forth from being raised amidst competing swathes of towering oil derricks and hyper-irrigated rice fields. There are times you can almost smell the sulfur and taste the sweat in the passionate voice of Janis Joplin and the strident-yet-smooth vocals of UGK. One’s environment will always influence one’s music, so you’re probably never going to hear whimsical indie rock emerge from that area of the world – the earth simply doesn’t contain those elements.

But it seems that the wide-ranging and multitudinous cornfields of the Midwest are the breeding ground for more than maize; intelligent, fanciful pop bands aplenty emerge from the soil there, all with an innate knack for writing hooks and lyrics that are insanely catchy and addictive. Rodeo Ruby Love, hailing from Marion, IN, possesses this gift in spades, complete with the ability to win the listener over with their politely restrained (but still infectious) glee. Their most recent effort, Vs. The Great American Cities, serves as an almost-concept album, as track after track chronicles the band’s conflicting emotions over the draw of the big city in contrast to their love for the small towns of their upbringing. Granted, as with a great many contemporary indie albums, an explosion of instrumentation is the norm, from banjos and bells to horns and handclaps, and the group runs the risk of potentially leaving the listener with the surface impression that this shtick has been heard several times before. Yet the band’s mix of insane optimism and idealism with a harsh dose of reality, as best heard on songs like “Quit! (Joel’s In Philadelphia),” “A Small House in the City,” and “Cancer and Loneliness,” make you want to laugh and smile along with the band during the best of times, and then give them a great big hug when their hearts are hurting. Fans of Anathallo and anything touched by Reese Roper (Five Iron Frenzy, etc.) will love what they hear with Rodeo Ruby Love.