Crooked Fingers
Forfeit/Fortune
Red Pig/ Constant Artists, Inc.
originally published October 1, 2008
When Eric Bachmann was the frontman for Archers of Loaf, his songs were fairly straightforward, and the band developed an easily identifiable and imitated sound. Crooked Fingers, however, Bachmann's current project, has always been a harder thing to pin down, as loosening up the reins has let Bachmann explore a number of different music ideas and directions.
Forfeit/Fortune, Crooked Finger's fifth album, comes in the wake of Bachmann's 2006 solo album To the Races. Fittingly, it swings away from the sparse, backwoods sound of that album to something considerably more full. Some tracks are heavy on the horns, others employ a kicking drum machine, and many place layer upon layer of strings over Bachmann's Neil Diamond-after-a-weekend-bender croon.
Rousing opener "What Never Comes" features the same weird, fakey-sounding synth horn noise that Bachmann used on Liz Durrett's new album Outside Our Gates, which he produced and arranged. Bachmann's strength with arrangements shows itself on "Luisa's Bones" - a song on which he never sings, but relies on his female backing vocalists to move front and center as finger-plucked guitar trips through drum machines.
"Cannibals" could've been an acoustic demo for an Archers rocker, and "Sinisteria" is a track that's reminiscent of the Pixies, in its own weird way, with loads of vocal distortion, insistent percussion and lyrics sung in Spanish. "¡No Me Lo Des!" is also a Spanish track, perhaps an influence of Tucson, AZ, where much of the album was recorded. It's been easy to compare Bachmann's raspy vocals to Tom Waits in past years, and the carnivalesque "Run, Lieutenant, Run" makes that an even easier proposition. "Your Control," a duet with Neko Case, closes out the album, and its lush, country-rock sound only underscores the range in which Bachmann and Crooked Fingers can succeed.
With Forfeit/Fortune, Bachmann has turned away from more typical distribution paths, making the disc available only to 20 select independent music retailers around the country - none of which are in Athens. Currently available via CrookedFingers.com and iTunes, the album will be available at this week's 40 Watt show but won't be in any local stores.
The Sammies
Sandwich
MoRisen
originally published October 1, 2008
If you had told me that North Carolina’s The Sammies would follow up their scattershot, Strokes- and Hives-aping debut with sedate and jangly numbers, I would have doubted you. If you added that it would feature a sitar, mandolin and lap steel, courtesy of Drive-By Truckers and co-producers Billy Bennett and Ben Holst, I would have become confused, curious and justifiably excited.
Rooting for these underdogs, who often work against themselves, is fun. The falsetto on “Falling Out,” an exhilarating part of the first record, was sometimes too high to faithfully recreate live. The stylistic hopscotch on the first record was already dizzying, and the new one adds folk-rock to the inconsistent sound. But while The Sammies were an elbows-flailing ruckus, Sandwich makes studied nonchalance seem effortless. Frank Backgammon delivers the album opener with cool detachment, singing, “I’ll sleep in my clothes tonight with you.” Instrument proficiency has improved throughout, and The Sammies do not forgo smooth tone and texture for chest thumping. The exceptional “Billy Mitchell” turns most engaging once the lead vocals drop out, making room for a reverb-heavy electric guitar and a wordless vocal backdrop.
The transition from debut to sophomore album appears jarring, but if you liked Wilco getting mellow on Sky Blue Sky and detested My Morning Jacket’s foray into the upper registers of Prince, you might appreciate it. I was not expecting the guys who recorded “Angry Robots Revolt” to deliver this mature, mostly pleasant surprise. So, why get mad at them for settling down when they have obviously started moving out of garage?
Mandi Perkins
Alice in No Man’s Land
RCA Victor
originally published October 1, 2008
There’s something to be said for reliability and consistency in songwriting, but the downside to so faithfully toeing the line is a repetitive samey-ness, and that’s unfortunately the case with Mandi Perkins. The Canadian-by-birth, Los-Angelena-by-choice rocker slings out 13 tracks of relationship woes on Alice in No Man’s Land, her debut full-length album. The rule more often than not holds that the songs Perkins performs start out quiet, suggesting a checked aggression, which is then unleashed at about the 45-second or one-minute mark on each song. That's when much of the noise drops out for a second and then a chorus, packed with melodic rock guitars (or sometimes a piano), comes in all crashy and forceful. It’s a fine trick once or twice - it worked to great effect on Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” for instance - but over and over and over? Not so much. The songs are structurally so similar and overworked to fit into the radio-hit format that it seems almost desperate, as though Perkins decided to pack 13 potential singles onto a disc in the hope that one might ring true with listeners - or more likely, rock radio program directors.
The songs on Alice in No Man’s Land come from a variety of songwriters, so it’s not even that Perkins’ songwriting is dull, it’s that her taste is one-note - either that, or her marketing plan is.
Perkins’ strength is her emphatic delivery, and Alice in No Man’s Land could serve as a fourth-generation Jagged Little Pill clone. Making pervasive negativity throughout songs like “Broken Window,” “I Fall Down” and “Why (You Confuse Me)” a focal point of the album is a brave move; if only the songwriting were as risky. The great thing about writing a song is you can choose to do anything - literally anything - while writing it. So, why choose such a creatively bereft path?
Ken Will Morton
Kickin' Out the Rungs & Devil in Me
Rara Avis
originally published October 1, 2008
Ken Will Morton's music is frustrating (and at times, downright annoying) to try and review and describe to others. I've had nearly a month to put his two latest releases into words, and it's been a trying process. Not only did he put out two albums at the same time, they're completely different. Devil in Me is his rock album (and my personal favorite) and Kickin' Out the Rungs is his acoustic album. It's not that Kickin' won't be enjoyed; some people will even prefer it greatly to Devil. That drives me crazy; everyone should just prefer the better album. By putting out two polar opposite albums at the same time, you'll more than likely greatly prefer one of them, or maybe you'll enjoy them exactly the same, but I have no idea how you'd do that.
Other reviewers, please do me a favor and stop calling people the next Dylan or Springsteen or Westerberg. There's not a review of Morton's out there that doesn't reference one of these giants, and it sets him up for a pretty lofty fall. The most dead-on description of him I could find compared the sound of some of his tracks to The Jayhawks, and that truly cannot be denied; nor is it any less noble to be compared to The Jayhawks than Dylan. The Jayhawks are/were a great band.
Kickin' Out the Rungs deserves to pretty much blow the coffee shop/singer-songwriter circuit on its ass. This is a genre that has gotten so bland and complacent by the incessant rehashing of ancient songs by Dylan, Springsteen and the like. Morton's well written songs are perfect for that setting. The stories get a little weighty at times, and I often found myself hoping for a little more music, and a little less balladry.
My only problem with Kickin' was that after the first time I listened to it, I popped in Devil in Me and it reminded me of going to a concert and thinking the opening act was pretty good, until the headliner comes out, and you realize they're the headliner because they're much better and powerfully controlling of your attention. The opening number "Devil in Me" is so damn good. It's a perfect first song. And "Made Up Mind," the second song, is just as good and so is the third. In fact, "Still Look Pretty," the fourth song, is the best song on either of his albums. It is easily as good as the great Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt gems from back in the day. The rest of the album follows a similar, and enjoyable pattern. See? You don't have to compare every musician who plays an acoustic guitar to Bob Dylan to give them praise.
Damien Jurado
Caught in the Trees
Secretly Canadian
originally published October 1, 2008
A go-getter manager at an inferior, yet wildly popular, chain restaurant asked the front-of-the-house staff to ignore hangovers and arrive early one Sunday to discuss the importance of word-of-mouth referrals in the casual dining experience. This was a million years ago, so forgive me if the statistics lack complete accuracy, but evidently a person that has a fine time at a restaurant doesn’t tell many folks, while those that have a poor experience tend to tell everyone they know, forever. And those people tell other people, too. If you’ve had the pleasure of slinging seven-dollar burgers in a fast-food-with-booze environment, you remember that manager, the meeting and the stats.
Thus, I am conflicted. If I tell you how fantastic Caught in the Trees is, will you shrug then scan the page looking for the regularly reviewed roach in the salad, dirty restrooms and undercooked burgers?
Jenna Conrad and Eric Fisher, the same pair that backed Jurado on 2006’s And Now That I’m in Your Shadow, play more confident and integral roles here. Her vocal harmonies and his Old West player piano plinking on the catchy album opener “Gillian Was a Horse” convince listeners they’re not just hired guns - this is a band. As dark, brooding and brutally observant as ever, Jurado is in fine form as the passive, pessimistic and patient narrator on “Trials” and the tense, fee-fi-fo-fum force underneath “Best Dress.”
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