Bostoned
After I wrote about the Chicago indie rockers Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, a reader informed me that one of the vocalists, Matthew Kerstein, had actually split from SYGC and formed his own band named after his hometown of Brighton, MA. In addition to being grateful for the correction, I was intrigued. Kerstein has a terrifically throaty yowl, rough-hewn and expressive, and medium in pitch, Bob Dylan meets Brandon Flowers. He gave SYGC its splintery edges, so I wondered what he’d do with a group of his own assembling. The answer is quite a lot, and nearly all of it is excellent.
As I’d expected, Brighton, MA is more rock ‘n’ roll than its predecessor, but only by a little. Kerstein’s trademark vocals remain, bouyed by glinting waves of sound both instrumental (guitar, drums) and electronic.
Really, the way many of Kerstein’s melodies are styled is quite theatrical, but never overblown or maudlin. Think Yellow-era Coldplay or the newest incarnation of the Bravery, only less weighted. So far, BM has only put out one album, but it’s an alt-rocking doozie. They aren’t, as far as I know, coming round here anytime soon, but buy enough of their CDs and perhaps they will. Either way you’ll be supporting homegrown music, and that, I think, is priceless.
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Nostalgia’s a whiz with the retouching, I know, but contrasting the pop music of my twixt and tween years with its present-day counterpart makes me feel elderly and querulous. It’s not that most of the musicians of my childhood were innovative, or even particularly talented, but they were making music, goddammit, and not synthesized schlock. Third Eye Blind, Eagle Eye Cherry, Semisonic, Blue Lagoon, Nine Days, Duncan Sheik, Better Than Ezra (these last two were actually quite good)… all turned out song after song, if not album after album of earnest, hook-laden pop rock. Nowadays, if a band charts these same waters, we call it “indie,” and leave it to the Pitchforked, who hear a whiff of OCousity and turn up their studded nostrils. Had Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers come to the scene even a decade earlier, we would be rocking out to them on NOW Volume 3, or I Love the 90′s: The Soundtrack right now.
Unfortunately for Kellogg, he didn’t release his first album, …South of Stephen, until 2000, and he didn’t team up with the three Sixers until 2004.
Perhaps the most appealing, and distinguishing quality of Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers is the lack of whine in Kellogg’s voice and lack of maudlin angst in the lyrics. Apart from these characteristics, what you’re getting is toothy, lying-on-a-blanket-looking-up-at-the-stars goodness, pure and simple. If you relish the formulaic-but-still-kicking brand of 90′s-pop awesomeness, you will lurve SKS.
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Having been let down all too often by WFNX‘s New England Product, I was afraid to expect much from Ryan Spaulding’s current seven favorite local bands. You can imagine my delight then, upon discovering that in the entire list, there was nary a nasal yowl nor over-distorted yawp to be found. One of the bands I liked best was The Sunsets Quick, an alt-rock quartet whose energy and enthusiastic beats remind me of the early Strokes, Hot Hot Heat, and the Pink Spiders. Frontman Matt has a voice remniscent of Connor Oberst‘s; it’s thin, a bit raspy, and surprisingly appealing. The SQ don’t trade much in literate folk, though they do slow down on the wistful “Down,” and the lilting waltz “Sorry” which unselfconsciously combines whistling and marimbas with a steady drum beat and pretty, if repetitive, guitar licks.
For such a young band, the SQ have an impressive grasp of rhythm and a knack for foot-tapping hooks. On the first single, “What You Wanna Hear,” the SQ switch between slow, earnest verses and a quick, fuzzy chorus. Sure, out of the entire album, there are a few tracks I skip over but a) that doesn’t mean you will, and b) so what if you do- there’s bound to be at least 5 you like. You have my word. And Ryan’s.
What comes to mind as you listen to Jordan Carp‘s latest album Spaceman will change from track to track. Ambience, free-wheeling electronics, melancholy fuzz, power pop, moody pop, experimental pop… Really, the 24 year-old Bostonian would not be out of place in the late 60′s to mid 70′s; he captures the prog-rockiness of Pink Floyd and the intricately layered soundscapes of the later Beatles.
There’s also a bit of the Scottish singer/songwriter Travis in Carp’s more stripped down, yearning melodies, but Spaceman is not a tribute album, consciously or otherwise. Sure, Carp’s influences are felt, but the way they are altered, spruced up or laid bare, makes for an original, and captivating album.
Chester French, Love The Future
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I’ve been waiting for Chester French’s LP, Love the Future, to drop for a looong time. It’s still not out, but I figured I’d sound an alarm anyways, because the band, which is comprised of Maxwell Drummey and DA Wallace, is just. that. good. The Harvard grads have a penchant for many things I tend to dislike -synthesizers, extreme tongue-in-cheekiness, bevies of pop-culture references… but their final product is so fresh and so clean. Well, maybe not so clean on songs like “She loves Everybody,” an beat-boxing, string-heavy ode to a girl who “craves affection/ so I use protection/ but I know she loves me/ she loves everybody.”
The band is often compared to the Beach Boys, but, apart from their easy syncopation, (particularly on the delightfully breezy “People”) there’s little of the innocent surf-boppers in their naughty, genre-bending, and very playful pop.
The duo first began to garner acclaim after a demo they’d shopped to just about every indie record label was snapped up by Pharrell’s Star Trak. With the hip-hop visionary’s much vaunted blessings, CF nuzzled their way into glossies, festivals, sold-out concerts, and music-lovers’ iPods everywhere. Including, hopefully, yours. Enjoy!
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First Taste, Lowell’s second album, finds the singer/songwriter (and Berklee grad) at a more introspective and musically polished place than he was with his EP. This is not to say the songs are not infectious easy listening -the title track in particular, with its rollicking guitar and piano, and crescendoing chorus, is my current driving/running bff. Lowell’s voice lies somewhere between Martin Sexton and Dave Matthews, husky, but with an ability to scale and yowl that is unforced.MORE>>>
Lyrically, Lowell has a penchant for the melancholic, but his delivery is sweet and earnest enough to avoid being trite. Along with Paul Simon and Matthews, Lowell cites John Mayer as being an influence, but he must be referring to Room for Squares, as there is nothing of the popstar’s current sacchrine smoothness in Lowell’s heartfelt music. There are only four songs on First Taste -the title track, “Falling through the Cracks,” which has a more rootsy vibe and killer piano, “Sweet Adele,” a bittersweet memorium of Manhattan and a “fast love gone so wrong,” and the meditative, rueful “Not My Day.” Still, though I wish there were more, the ones there are so all so fantastic that I can’t really complain.
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