Press Play

Scott Solter Plays Pattern Is Movement

Canonic

Sorry folks, this writer is not a fan of math-rock. Call me crazy, but I’d rather listen to someone with heart and soul on a simple 4/4 beat than someone with a TI-83 calculator for a brain. A few musicians have managed to do both, but they’re dead (Beethoven) or have suffered from dementia (Don Van Vliet). The record was made a little more interesting by being dubbed-out something akin to Neu!’s IV by Scott Solter. Otherwise it would’ve been sheer Chinese water torture.

Tom Petty

Highway Companion

Tom Petty is an American staple like Burger King (I guess McDonald’s would be the Boss), but unlike Burger King you can get your Tom Petty every day and not get fat and unhealthy. Like Burger King, he tastes the same every time you go back, but he satisfies, and man alive, if he ain’t the tastiest food on GOD’S GREEN EARTH! I have always thought of him as having a “Byrds/Dylan gone New Wave” sound, that is to say lyrically-based pop songs that are as fun to listen to as anything contemporary pop can dish out. As to the new album, it is one tasty whopper after another.

Shapes and Sizes

The new self-titled output by this Wyoming group sounds like The Decemberists trying their hand at making a soundtrack for a film based on an S.E. Hinton novel. The album would’ve been 50 times more enjoyable had they not set their vocal harmonies to the default indie-rock voice, which I’ve been hoping and praying would disappear since Weezer got big on the scene.

Pajo

1968

There is something to be said for a group that can make you feel like Big Star having a late-afternoon nap on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro or the French Riviera. I don’t understand why the vocals have to sound so light and quiet, like they’re coming from an AM radio, which is the same throughout the whole of the album. Though devoid of any other aggressive tendencies, there is plenty of hypnotizing guitar and drum interplay to keep the CD playing.

Bridges and Powerlines

I wish I could say something interesting about Bridges and Powerlines, but I swear I’ve heard these same vocal harmonies and guitar licks in various other groups since about 1994 (see “Shapes and Sizes”). Some things never change and it’s rare that they do in the indie-pop realm.

Feathers

Synchromy

Psychedelic studio trickery, beautiful; they sound like Gary Numan, Neu!, Air, and The Homosexuals all in one band. If you buy this CD, you may not leave your stereo for the next six months.