Pyramid
The First American
www.sidewalkexplosion.com
We here at CL often refer to Pyramid as an “experimental” rock group, an easy pitfall given the octet’s own anecdotes about late-night, chemically altered mad laboratory recording sessions and rather spontaneous live shows.
But like all truly inspired recordings, the band’s debut, The First American, forces listeners to re-examine their musical preconceptions. Because the most surprising aspect of The First American — a record chockfull of bewitching surprises — is not how avant garde or off-the-wall it is, but how organic and natural it sounds.
Its strength begins with great songs. And the eight members (all multi-instrumentalists) deliver them with passion and chops, from the sinister insistence of “Digging to China” and claustrophobic paranoia of “Appalachian,” to the summery buzz of “Adelaide” and chugging rock riffage of “Engineer.”
The First American is memorable also for its unique arrangements. Wind instruments and strings, rather than guitars or keyboards, not only provide accents but drive key passages in every song. Yet they never feel self-indulgent, never sacrifice melody or beat just for the shock value of a weird affect. The brick and mortar, as well as the bells and whistles, serve the song, never the other way around.
And the music serves the lyrics, written primarily by Ben Best and Joey Stephens (they also share singing duties). Both prefer striking imagery to straight narratives, and lines like “there’s something coming over me and I’m pointing out my enemies”(from “Appalachian”) and “I’m rancid, I’m bad, man, I’m cancer in your mouth” (from “Digging to China”) accurately reflect the minor key, tangibly Gothic feel of the record, the aural equivalent of rummaging through an old house and discovering a sinister but mesmerizing past.
The final piece in the puzzle, and one that could have gutted the entire effort if mishandled, is pitch-perfect production. All those accents and instruments could have overwhelmed the songs. Instead, the production highlights their placement and distinct nature — from synthetic tape loops to organic reeds — without sacrificing the heart of the songs.
It may be tempting to put The First American in a local context, but the music, like most memorable recordings, transcends time and place. This is more than simply a great record; in its own way it can redefine how we hear music. And a record wielding that kind of power deserves our highest praise.
Rating:
– John Schacht
Darling (Seth Avett)
The Mourning, the Silver, the Bell
Ramseur Records
If there was any question that the Avett Brothers were true originals, Seth Avett’s solo recording (under the moniker Darling) should put an end to his half of those questions. Stepping away from the Avett Brothers’ punk-grass, brother Seth has written a slew of folk-ish confessionals, love songs and narrative tales with twangy or rock-oriented accents that cumulatively create their own appealing logic.
Alternating primarily between simple piano and acoustic guitar-driven arrangements, Darling’s songs manage to avoid most folk clichés — no small feat given how many there are. By following his own songwriting logic, most of these cuts eschew the typical verse-verse-chorus nature of traditional folk songs, the best of them opting for their own structures and rules.
On “This Night Here (Something Like Hope),” for instance, Avett omits the chorus, using the title refrain as an anchor for the duration of the 3-minute song. Over a simple alternating-bass string strum on acoustic guitar, Avett celebrates the sinful lure of night and the redemptive quality of hope by first piling up a list of wrongs and then contrasting them with a perfect walk-off line, “This night here is perfect for trading sins/you can be what I’ve been/half-way between misery and serene nights/of something like hope.”
The record’s refreshing honesty is another strong draw. On “Ballad in Open D,” Avett bemoans a break-up in blunt terms: “Lord there might be something that she wants from me to give her/like maybe some clothes or jewelry that she left here/well I’d give her things back gladly, but I can’t/because I threw them in a river.”
The record’s only fault is one of exuberance, so hard to fault with any real vigor. But coming in at a whopping 65 minutes, the sheer number of songs (17) makes the record seem front-loaded. The handful of songs that stretch out into five-minute-plus territory wouldn’t suffer from some editing, particularly the jarring electric guitar solo at the end of the seven-minute-plus “Mama and the Future,” a three-minute coda better suited to the Avett’s Oh What a Nightmare side project.
These are mostly quibbles, though, and contribute to the record’s immediacy. In time, if the Avetts decide to hang up their punkgrass boots, at least their fans have Darling to wait for.
Rating:
– John Schacht
La Rúa
Una Noche de Abril
www.larua.net
Una Noche de Abril (One Night in April) is an all-Spanish recording by the Charlotte-based quintet La Rúa. It’s filled with 12 cleanly produced tracks that are more straightforward Top 40 fare than Latin-influenced music. There are touches of Latin music, mind you, but most tracks are essentially melodic pop and rock tunes, just sung in Spanish. Props do go out to them for staying true to their roots, as they could have thrown in a couple tunes sung in English to hit a broader market, but there’s really no need for that. This is essentially better Spanish Top-40 rock.
Rating:
-Samir Shukla
Gideon Smith & the Dixie damned
Dealin’ Decks
Scarey Records (Italy)
Rocker Gideon Smith has been mounting his own take on Southern acid rock tinged in the blues for over a decade now. This is the second release of the rotating crew of hot regional musicians pegged as the Dixie Damned. Dealin’ Decks is an Italian import of six songs recorded over a 3-year period (2001-2004). The band kicks poseur rock in the nads while plowing through tracks reminiscent of a Monster Magnet/White Zombie grinder and spiced with Smith’s own lyrical outlook and bluesy, psychedelic Southern rock. Smith & the Dixie Damned’s first effort was Southern Gentlemen, released on Detroit’s Small Stone Records a few years back.
Rating: 1/2
-Samir Shukla
Various Artists
This Is Indie Rock, Vol. 1
Deep Elm
This is a lo-cost, spirited compilation put together by Charlotte label Deep Elm and features unreleased cuts by bands from all over this hallowed land. Charlotte’s contribution is Second Hand Stories’ “Frontiers.” It’s a moody, Dylan-like acoustic track. If this comp is the beginning of something new, then bring on many more volumes (they are, actually). (Shukla)
Rating:
-Samir shukla
Shorts: Dillon Fence/Best + (MoRisen): Here’s a 2-CD set by a cool North Carolina power pop band that, sadly, never quite broke the final chains to the land of hits and radio. Darn shame, since the band’s genial pop infects the brain cells with melodies that linger. The extra disc contains a small batch of bonus tunes. Singer Greg Humphreys also plays with soul-rock combo Hobex.
(Shukla)…
Cary Sims & Black Market Radio/Coffee and Second Hand Smoke (www.blackmarketradio.com): Perfectly passable, professionally performed Triple-A radio fare from this two-year old quartet. Chronicling typical broken hearted laments and late-night barroom antics (the latter leading to the former), Sims and Co. lean more toward contemporary country with its rock structure and instrumentation than Hank Williams old school. But these harmony-rich songs carry more emotional heft than the shallow drek emanating from Music Row.
(Schacht)…
Chris Cook/Small Town Gone (www.gaffmusic.com): Hard core twang from Belmont’s Cook, whose star rose considerably last year on the strength of a European tour opening for Kevin Montgomery. The title track from Small Town Gone laments the encroaching suburbanization of his hometown, while the other songs celebrate the growing pains and learning curves Cook went through there. Cook’s got the goods, but he should buy a round for producer Jim Brock (drums, too) and multi-instrumentalist David Johnston, whose steel guitar, fiddle and dobro help elevate this record above Triple AAA fare.
1/2
(Schacht)…Sonny Sonnenstein/Coming Home (www.sonnysonnenstin.com): Sonnenstein’s debut is a keyboard-driven singer-songwriter full-length in the manner of Billy Joel or current-day Elton John. Sonnenstein is a 9/11 World Trade Center survivor, and used that experience to reignite his long-dormant love of songwriting. Coming Home is the well-crafted if somewhat saccharine result.
1/2
(Schacht)…Sonnny Ledfurd/Imported Sounds From North Carolina (www.sunnyledfurd.com): Good-natured, hip-hop powered pop, featuring catchy songs about catching a buzz and catching tail (or chasing it), more often than not delivered with a wink and owing a hefty debt to Sugar Ray.
1/2 (Schacht)…
Crisis/Shakey Ground (www.crisisincharlotte.com): A professional-sounding batch of southern-tinged pop songs benefiting greatly from Jamie Hoover’s production and fretwork.
1/2
(Schacht)…
High School Speeding/Hot Girls in Love (www.highschoolspeeding.com): This five-song EP delivers riff rock inspired by Guided By Voices but more reminiscent of Cheap Trick or the Cars. The rock songs work okay; the ballads are pedestrian and need work. There’s promise here, but carving out an audience for this recently transplanted Tennessee group : and overcoming that band name : will be tough during a particularly fertile time on the local music scene.
(Schacht)…
Mary Fagan/Every Place Is Home (www.maryfagan.com): Twelve songs recorded in seven different studios featuring as many different styles, including funk, country, jazz (the first three cuts, respectively), rock, folk and blues. Some songs work quite well, others less so, but the style-hopping is disconcerting, the disc sounding more like a style sampler than a cohesive recording.
1/2
This article appears in Mar 30 – Apr 5, 2005.
