Bringing the ’90s back with a rather valiant effort, Water & Bodies, which is mostly made up of members from the previously established band Kaddisfly, has come back onto the map with a new moniker and full-length debut album “Light Year.”
Fly larva spawns in the water
Bringing the ’90s back with a rather valiant effort, Water & Bodies, which is mostly made up of members from the previously established band Kaddisfly, has come back onto the map with a new moniker and full-length debut album “Light Year.” Although Water & Bodies’ lineup is a little different from Kaddisfly’s, its music has definitely taken a drastically different direction.
When first forming, Water & Bodies showed much promise in its newly formed vision of striving to remain simple. Sticking to simple and solid rock riffs, which have already been a step into a new horizon for them—the group is creating music that must be mustered up by just simply jamming out ideas.
Water & Bodies is made up of Christopher James Ruff (vocals, keys), Aaron Tollefson (guitar, vocals) and Beau Kuther (drums). Before “Light Year,” the group had released two EPs and ventured on its first tour of the west coast. After returning from the tour, they members turned on their thinking caps and churned out an LP’s worth of work in less than two months.
These Portland locals have been laying down their beats at multiple venues here in the Rose City this past month, trying to win over fans and create a substantial foundation to their name. Although they are showing their enthusiasm to get “out there” and into the eyes of a hopeful A&R rep, the group’s record boasts the idea of trying to create something from nothing. Hidden under their simple riffs and bustling undertones of the forceful bass lies a band that is showing how much it truly wants to be signed by a major record label. Not to say that the music is not worthy, because they obviously can perform up to par as musicians, but rather to say that this music is as good as gold…if it were only the ’90s again.
“Light Year,” produced by Rian Lewis and released on Eyos Records, starts out with “Celebration Song,” a four-plus minute song complete with the shimmering guitar strokes and the simple rhythm section. This leads you to almost expect that this could easily be a My Chemical Romance song or something that the Foo Fighters would produce. This completes the imagery of the ’90s early on.
The vocals that start up after the slow introduction to the instrumentals should ring true for many ‘90s rock enthusiasts. What comes as a surprise, however, is the piano lines that seem to covertly run through each song, only to blossom to bring in a proper fill-in when the time is right.
What this record unintentionally represents is the fact that if you have enough time and talent to work with, you can easily come up with some surprisingly catchy and fluid tunes. But just as music has evolved into a much more fitting mold to this changing taste in music from generation to generation, I wouldn’t put my money on this record becoming anything too shabby—enough to seek the eyes of a major record label. It is no question that Water & Bodies has the potential to live beyond Kaddisfly. From just listening to this record, you can hear that this band has something more that it is just not showing us on this LP. ?
