David Childers and the Modern Don Juans
Room #23
Ramseur/Silver Meteor
Anyone who has seen David Childers perform live over the past couple of years has heard many of the songs on Room #23: “38th Street,” “Her Side of the Story,” “Hardwood Killing Floor” and “The Prettiest Thing” have been live standouts, and there’s also the song Childers wrote with his brother Max, “Dr. Sanchez,” which has been around in one form or another for almost a decade. As such, this record sounds remarkably assured. Like a Peter Taylor short story, you get the sense no line was written before its time.
Coming on the heels of two critically successful low-fi Childers releases, A Good Way to Die and Blessed in an Unusual Way, Room #23 sounds positively lush by comparison. Recorded at Charlotte’s Reflection Sound Studios with producer Don Dixon (R.E.M., Marti Jones), the record lacks some of the found sounds and intermezzos that characterized the last two records, but makes up for it with the characters themselves: alcoholics attempting to dry out, ex-lovers coming to grips, and folks trying to hide from their own shadows. Already doing gangbusters in Europe with critics, radio shows and fans alike, this Room is one worth reserving in advance.
Grade: A –Timothy C. Davis
Michael Holland
Bootlegger’s Dreams
Big Johns
A person’s surroundings have a lot to do with their listening habits. Some songs quickly attach themselves to summer road trips. Others lend themselves nicely to romantic breakups. Bootlegger’s Dreams sounds like, well, listening.
Michael Holland — who, along with his brother Mark fronts the band Jennyanykind — has made a quiet headphone masterpiece here. Bootlegger’s Dreams has the spark and rattle and hiss of primitive rough-hewn folk (think Harry Smith’s Anthology) but is underscored by lots of non-linear, almost dub-like guitar work. There’s a little Captain Beefheart in here, too, along with maybe a dab of Jerry Garcia.
Mostly, it sounds like Holland’s just singing and playing from the heart here, with barely a thought of what’s to come next. Listening, if you will. You should too.
Grade: A- –Timothy C. Davis
Oh What a Nightmare
Oh What a Nightmare
Ramseur Records
The Avett’s new record is not an “Avett Brothers” record, per se, but the debut of their very electric side project — and also a doorway to the brothers’ initial musical dreams, last heard in their band, Nemo. The opening track head-butt of “Stop the Music” should answer the question many have probably asked themselves watching the brothers do their acoustic punk-grass thing: “Wonder what they’d sound like plugged in?” The answer is loud, and with a host of stylistic touches: Sabbath-like hard rock (lead guitarist Kenny Graham does a mean Tony Iommi), some Skynyrd, a touch of doo-wop, Thin Lizzy, a little Ramones…all delivered with an unmistakable Avett lyricism throughout. Seth takes a turn behind the kit, his backing vocals on the title track a record highlight; brother Scott howls through a mix of heavy numbers and whispers the occasional ballad for ballast, and Derek Young’s bass-line anchors things down. Oh What a Nightmare might be just that for Avett fans who come from the “grassy side of the fence, but for the other half it might just be dreamy.
Grade: B+–John Schacht
Brian Hartzog
One-Way Ticket
Indie Boy Music
On first listen Hartzog’s self-proclaimed “funk and roll” style has a whiff of self-promotional bravado, but to his credit the “funk” is laden tightly over early Bowie-induced rock & roll. Hartzog plays it safe and covers many alleys of rock on his second full-length release. The record differs from his debut, where he played all the instruments, in that he brings in musicians to add a full-band live sound. It’s mostly 70s leaning rock, funky enough in its shuffles while showcasing Hartzog’s maturing lyrical bent, often inspired, occasionally silly. Recorded in his bedroom studio with a little help from engineer Mark Williams (Southern Culture on the Skids, James McMurty).
Grade: B-–Samir Shukla
This article appears in Jan 14-20, 2004.
