Await the Day

Await the Day
Time for Change (EP)
©2008 Tooth and Nail records
www.myspace.com/awaittheday

Hmm, EP’s are an odd lot, are they not? It used to be back in the glory days of vinyl that an EP offered a nice alternative between the single and the long player. I mean you might get a couple mixes of a song and some non-LP tracks, perhaps a coveted rare live track or some other nugget. Oddly enough they don’t seem to be all that popular anymore. What if you were a band that had 5 good songs but not enough money or motivation for a full length CD? Maybe EP’s are still a good idea. On the flipside, maybe you’ve got one good song and four others that are rather undifferentiated. Perhaps then, an EP is the vehicle to promote yourself rather than falling flat with a full-length effort that only has one or two good tracks?

It’s hard to figure out Await the Day’s strategy with the “Time for Change” EP. They have better than average songs, unflinching Christian lyrics, and very competent musicianship. Oddly though, other than track 2, “It Won’t Be Long”, nothing really jumped out at me. I really, really like track 2 however. It plays to all their strengths, and the hooks are massive. Vocals are strong and the contrast between the clean guitar and heavy is very well done, although a bit typical for this genre. The remaining four songs are pretty good, nothing I couldn’t listen to if the CD player was across the room and I had to make an effort to hit the “skip” button. Actually, I might right reach for that button on track 4, “Rescue”, the vocal melody gets under my skin in a few points, the screams in the background are cool.

I suppose those that follow Tooth and Nail and are fans of this genre will have more substantive thoughts in terms of how this band measures up, but overall a decent effort. Hopefully when they get to a long player, it will be a more consistent effort.

I give it 7/10 Gibson SG’s

DAA

Haydon Spencely-Circles

Haydon Spenceley
Circles
©2008 Independent
www.myspace.com/haydonspenceley

I was so ready to slag this off after one listen but I give it another spin and was surprised at my thoughts after a second go ‘round. I like electronica. I came of age musically when the cost of technology dropped enough that the post punk scene became littered with anybody writing a catchy tune on a cheap analog synth. Some bands carved out a niche in musical history, others dropped off radar quickly.

I suppose we’re now at the edge of the technology/cost precipice where you can purchase software and achieve results at home on your Mac/PC that would have been prohibitively expensive just a few years ago. Again, the market is a DIY proposition. This can yield excitement from those who use the technology well and a fat strata of those who just plug and play offering up mediocrity and a stew of half baked ideas seasoned with generic playing.

Haydon’s strong point is his song writing. Chord progressions and melodies are well constructed and not culled from a pool of clichés. I actually felt the little instrumental vignettes were some of the most compelling moments of the whole album, which is largely vocal based. Actually the vocals are where I was let down a bit. His singing affectation(s) got on my aural nerves after a bit. Almost like the guy giving the speech that keeps saying, “You know?”. After a while, it’s all you can focus on even though he’s giving you the secret formula for staying young and thin. Haydon uses the phony British accent thing too much except on track 4 where he does a spot on Trent Reznor impersonation. Oh wait, Haydon is from the U.K. Okay, I gave you back a point for that faux pas on my part. The vocals are placed way up front in the mix which is not always a bad thing especially if you’ve got something to say which I think Haydon does. The other beef is that he needs to capture and make use of dynamics and breathing room in the music. Some tracks have vocals right through the whole song with nary a 2 bar break.
It makes me wonder how much better this would be with somebody like Flood behind the board twiddling and suggesting those spaces and creating greater dynamic range.
My somewhat faulty sense is that this was a home grown/recorded effort and would benefit from some tweaking. Overall, I’d recommend it as I think Haydon can seriously write and despite the vocal affectations he has a pleasant voice that fits his music. Count me in for the re-mixed album.

7.5/10 racks of Pro-Tools outboard gear.

DAA

Denison Witmer-Carry the Weight

Denison Witmer
Carry the Weight
©2009 The Militia Group
www.myspace.com/denisonwitmer

Let’s get this straight. I don’t care for most “indie” or “alt-country” stuff out there right now. Most of it sounds contrived and at worst, twee and whiney. I do like the roots of most of it.

I was very, very surprised at Denison Witmer’s offering: superbly recorded and rock solid in the writing department; perhaps the awkward offspring of Simon and Garfunkel and Death Cab for Cutie being trained by Peter Case and Crowded House. All to say, this has great pop leanings with heartfelt and interesting writing. I can spot an emotional phony a mile a way and this whole project seems dead on for honesty and reality. I was listening to it while kind of shutting my eyes, and it was the soundtrack for a lazy, hot afternoon. There’s an undercurrent of melancholy, without being distracting or too personal. Denison’s voice is pleasant, and while occasionally sounds a shade Gibbard-esque, avoids being derivative or self-conscious. I’m guessing Mr. Witmer has done more than one acoustic gig in his life.

Lyrically, the album is strong. Thankfully, the lyrics are provided on the miniscule CD-booklet. It’s personal, but not embarrassing or ham-fisted. Life Before Aesthetics is a stand out lyrically. The recording is crisp with the guitars sounding lively and well balanced. Round that out with appropriate mixing of bass, drums and keys (mainly organ/piano), and this is one album that will receive repeat play for me. I may have to refuse to return this CD to its lender.

Flavorful tracks - From Here On Out, Song of Songs, If You Are the Writer

9/10 packs of phosphor bronze acoustic strings

DAA

the Mustard Seeds s/t

The Mustard Seeds
S/T
©1996 Forefront

Disclaimer: I like King's X, I've followed their career from around the time of Gretchen Goes to Nebraska being released until they finally failed to capture my interest or harbor my allegiance, which was about the time of "Tapeheads". I do like this CD, the following is a critical review...

So, some sage-ancient postulated, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Right and when do you cross the line from that pleasant little platitude and become a blatant rip-off? And, will the adoring fans care, much less notice?

The Mustard Seeds S/T CD was an assisted discovery for me. Way back when we had our first computer, a nice little Mac Performa with a blazing fast 14.4K modem, I found a guy that was a King's X fan in Texas. We swapped postings on some long forgotten bulletin board. Eventually we swapped tapes via the mail. He sent me several mix-tapes (which I still have in my possession) and on one of them were a few songs culled from this CD. Hmmm, nice stuff: melodic, pop with heavier underpinnings, killer multi-part harmonies lifted from the template forged by that band from Liverpool, some obvious influences, Queen/Sabbath/Beatles etc. Oh wait, there's already a band doing that?

The obvious and easy comparison is with King's X, whom they actually thank on the CD. To say that King's X is a singular reference point for this CD is like saying Nietzsche influenced Stalin, oh crap perhaps that's a bit ham fisted by way of comparison, or not. I mean, the melodies, the chords, the dual primary vocalists sounding like Ty and Doug, the tight grooves and the avoidance of ordinary intervals for chords and melodies. I mean come on, is anybody going to miss the comparison?

Okay enough carping on that end of things. I can tell you that occasionally they veer away from being an “almost cover band” and become shade more original than chameleonic (yes I made that word up). The playing is adequate and the songs are actually good. The production lacks the luster of the early Sam Taylor work that gave definition and clarity to that aforementioned power trio from TX. It's adequate although the guitar sounds generic, the bass a bit flaccid and the drums almost sound like a victim of poor mastering in points with subtle balance issues. This is nitpicking, so I'll again state, I actually like this CD.
I've been lazy and didn't bother to try and track them down via the Internet to see what became of them or if there's a rabid fan website or something like that. For all I know, one lives in my neighborhood and will leave a bag of flaming dog crap on my porch after reading this, although I suppose that infers that he will care enough to actually read and react to this.
I won't do the Amazon review trick where I go through each track and break it down and grade it, for goodness sake, I have a life and time is a precious commodity.

The recovering snob gives this CD 6.5/10 bags of flaming dog dookie

High points: Mother May I, Last Man on Earth

D

The U2 problem.....

Hmm,
I picked up the new U2 cd at my buddies store. I was on my way home from work after kind of a rough week and felt I needed to pick up either a cd or DVD or something.
It's odd, U2 are probably one of my favorite bands, TO A VERY CLEARLY DEFINED POINT! I couldn't listen to them after Achtung Baby. It's like all the air had been sucked out of them and the Pop/Zooropa crap was just awful to my ears. My favorite album of theirs remains The Unforgettable Fire. It's an odd one for sure, the Eno production and experimentation just kind of hit me where I live musically. I do love The Joshua Tree but all the hype and megalomania that ensued after it kind of put me off, at least on U2 as a commodity.
So, I haven't even listened to it yet but did pull the liner notes, oops, I mean the cd booklet. Am I a jerk to be predisposed to not liking it based on the 2-3 pages of recording info/thanks/causes that we support info? While I completely dislike being preached at by somebody in the entertainment industry, I think that Bono has been pretty honest and sincere in his moral quests. I think that he probably does put his money where his mouth is but I still kind of get my hackles up when I see 3 pages of perceived self-aggrandizing information.
I'll rip it onto my iPod and see how it hits me. It's nice to see Eno/Lanois/Lillywhite in the credits for production, maybe it will be at the least, sonically interesting to me.
We shall see.........