I really don't want to make a habit of doing music reviews. I'd rather save that for Kowalski. He'll do a much better job than I ever will. I love music. I just prefer to stay away from the review writing. I'd probably do a pretty shitty job of getting the point across on how great a band or album is. But i'm sure from time to time, some album or band will strike my fancy. Or more than likely that band or album will just be stuck in my head. Don't you love how easy it is for a new album to get stuck in your head? Next thing you know it takes days upon days for it to finally leave your head. Just like a cheesy pop song.
I think i'm getting just a bit off topic. Wait that reminds of Harry Doyle from Major League, "just a bit outside." That's for another day. I am no country fan. I have never liked it and don't think that I ever will. All that twanging and hick crap doesn't interest me. It's like fingernails to a chalkboard. However I will put country higher than a shit band like Limp Bizkit or an overrated band like Coldplay. Thanks to a wonderful music blog,
http://canyouseethesunset.com/, I discovered the band Sleepercar and their debut album West Texas.
I listened to the two tracks put up and I was hooked. I imagine making long desert drives with this as my soundtrack. It's perfect for those wide open spaces in the Southwest. Taking Highway 40 across to Ash Fork or Williams, Arizona? The sky clear blue with a smattering of clouds? Put this album on. You won't regret it. It is absolutely perfect.
Ok not absolutely. I take that back. West Texas would have made a good debut EP. I can't get enough of the first 5 tracks. I've been listening to those on and off, mostly on, since I found the album. Once track 6,
Heavy Weights, starts the album just goes dowhill. It sounds like mostly filler.
Who is Sleepercar? They are the side project of Jim Ward, the lead singer from Sparta. You want to know more, go to Wikipedia. Like I said, West Texas would make a great debut EP. Start with,
A Broken Promise. As Frank Catton once reminded us, "Nuff Said."
Taking elements of new wave, synth pop and electronic music, then mashing it all together into the music from a movie that John Hughes wishes he had made if he hadn't gone and sold his soul to the Culkins, Deastro's "Keepers" is an enthusiastic reclamation of all things joyous and wonderful. To call the songs that 22 year-old Randolph Chabot has crafted catchy would be an understatement. Songs like "The Shaded Forest" and "Micheal, The Lone Archer Of The North Shore" run with their exuberance like teenagers dashing through the hall on the last day school, pulling you along with them until you share in their feeling. But then there are the exhale moments, like the beginning of "Open Up Ye Dark Gates!", that are the summer sun and cool breeze car ride of abandonement. Where the elements of your life that form that knot in your belly untie and release you with a gleam in it's eye and a smile on it's face, as if to say, "You needed me, so you could feel like this".