Schooner

Hold on Too Tight

54º40’ or Fight!

originally published June 20, 2007

This five-piece band from Raleigh featuring siblings Reid and Kathryn Johnson on most of the vocals has been causing mild hyperventilation over the possible resurgence of the Carolina music scene, but it's safe to assume that, much like “Athens” seems to ebb and flow in terms of national popular radar, the Carolinas are always there and producing plenty of quality music. Nor does Schooner sound overwhelmingly from the area. Largely dreamy, with a lot of big-room production reminiscent of Camera Obscura’s last record (which is to say it also sounds like mid-'60s slow-dancing music) and prettily interwoven singing, the songs could just as easily have come from anywhere in the country or out of it.

“There’s Enough to Do” echoes with a less sloppy Tim-era Replacements feel. “I Would Tell You That I’m Stuck” does feel a touch like Guided by Voices or Superchunk, but even in the waves of big chords, there’s a bit of enervation. It’s a quiet album, and learning that Reid Johnson wrote a lot of the songs by himself at 4 a.m. makes a lot of sense. It’s floor-bound, stuck in one place, and the lyrics bear witness to this impression, packed with the conditional and subjunctive moods, the feeling we’re inside the head of someone picking over things that have happened or could.

Progress isn’t necessary in music, especially in lyrics, and the stillness doesn’t come off as catatonia, but merely as thought-gathering. We all need a little meditation from time and time, and late summer nights are a nice time for it.

Hillary Brown