Thomas Function – Celebration! (Alive, 2008)
Pressed to make a scurrilous comparison, I’d venture to say that Thomas Function has a vague Bob Dylan influence filtered through the guise of ‘80s small-label-rock, joined with nervous coffee drinking and various other nerdly pursuits. Whether or not that’s fair is debatable, but the indelible mark of Robert Zimmerman is there, even in the less than modern keyboard sound.
Led by vocalist Josh Macero, this group seems adept at churning out well put together pop songs. But with a disc running over forty minutes, a full listen does become trying. And while that is unquestioningly a criticism, the source material gleaned to create Celebration!, from the Fugs to twitchy rock bands and country music, is endearing. These songs will make you walk in time to them, hum the melody and sing choruses at inappropriate times and places.
On an album such as Celebration!, seemingly each track is basically the same. There are obviously nuanced differences, like an emphasis on indie-pop on one track, followed by the hill-folk of “2012 Blues”. Perhaps confusion has set in, without a distinction being made for the group’s style as opposed to monotony.
Obviously though, credit needs to be bestowed upon the band for touring DIY venues and working together as a cohesive pop group. This just makes me wonder what else Alabama has been hiding.
The Everyothers – Pink Sticky Lies (Kill Rock Stars, 2006)
Pink Sticky Lies is the follow up EP to this group’s full length debut from a few years back. The general pop consensus has not changed much in those years; indie is cool, looking shaggy is glamorous and copping attitudes from the 70’s is the best way to become a rock star. The Everyothers take all these cues and in each song repeat them with little or no variety. This is rock n’ roll, no doubt. But the vocals, courteously of Owen McCarthy seem frequently strained. He wants to be a crooner and while he can hit those notes, those notes don’t always seem to fit with the musical venue which the band provides. When the vocal quiver begins the overall quality of the song fails. Never have I degraded music for being overtly simplistic, but I do hold in higher esteem those songs that have unique aspects. And this EP glaringly omits variety and invention. Kill Rock Stars is generally well regarded in indie circles: they have helped to create a number of underground stars. But in the release of The Everyothers album, KRS has assisted what seem like deluded musicians reaching for glory in a confusing time warp of lackadaisical hippness.
Tracklisting:
01 – Too Far
02 – Dive With Me
03 – Something Wrong
04 – Pink Sticky Lies
05 – A New Inebriation
Mike Fellows – Limited Storyline Guest (Vertical Form, 2004)
Mike Fellows did some time in a band of note, The Silver Jews (Velvet Underground doing country without an expressive lead guitar). So that little history lesson delving into this mans’ career should fully explain his latest release. Of course not. Limited Storyline Guest is full of laid-back guitar twang, finger picking style, and electronic production. The merging of two disparate styles, Americana and Electronica, pushes his music as a whole forward. And moreover, it works. Fellow’s singing is kinda shaky, but in the context of thirty-somethings doin’ country stylings for the hip set, it becomes part of the model. Most of this recording is pretty restrained, but it seems that way because of the minimal drumming, making this whole recording seem light and airy, yet complete. The one frustrating moment on the album comes in the form of “AM”, an instrumental with good intentions that quickly becomes an exercise in self gratification. Experimental attempts succeed or fail, there’s seemingly no middle ground. And “AM” falls short by about a mile and a half. The off-kilter piano simplicity wouldn’t come off as bothersome if not for the lack of rhythm: though intentional, not acceptable. “Way I Love,” replete with acoustic bass accompanying the fingerpicked guitar, the Beefheartian damaged vocals and harmonica further layers the track with Dadaism. The guitar line of “Sunshores” flows up and falls down into itself as the main figure repeats for a good minute before Fellows, amidst electro production proclaims, “I don’t know what the fuck to do with that”.
Tracklisting:
01 – Way I Love
02 – All Wang Heavily
03 – Zig Zag Zig
04 – Sunshores
05 – Chinese Houses
06 – Our Crank
07 – AM
08 – Commander of Space
09 – Nothing Sign