| shadowband -- Redondo, Ca
Just My Type
BY: Steven Booth -- Originally published on: 2001-10-01
View the original article on-line.
You gotta love Austin, Texas, the home of Junior Brown and Alejandro Escovedo, among others, the real rock-and-roll capital of the world. That's where Punchy comes from, one of the more recent signings of our own Pinch Hit Records, and like their Austin bretheren, they keep it real, playing rock that is knowlegable of Blues and Country, but also not afraid to tweak it with strains of pure Pop and shards of post-Punk irony almost made famous by bands like The Replacements and Soul Asylum. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Fritz Beer sings with the desperate hope of Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) on songs like "Be my Type" and "Graces," intercut with gallows humor Soul Asylum would like on "Needle Exchange" and "Tease Me Through the Bars." His songs are leaden full of irony, seeming to be written in a race with Errol Siegel's beautiful melodies on guitar, almost causing brain overload to the listener. The result at it's best sort of reminds me of a Roots/Rock Squeeze or Elvis Costello, but as it keeps on, it becomes claustrophobic. there aren't a lot of open spaces here, each one filled with a usually razor-sharp lyric or a Beatles-meets-Wilco melody. I think the guys are trying so hard to write perfect songs they forget to let them breathe. This is where they could learn from their Austin forbears. If you listen to an Escovedo record, you notice the wide-open spaces where the music and lyrics are allowed to sink in deep, and the groove just carries it along to wherever it goes. Even bands like Wilco and The 'Mats are/were aware of this, and that is why their best songs are so memorable. All that being said, this band has tremendous potential and talent, and the word is that they are phenomanal live, now if they'd just let it flow a bit more....
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Copyright 2001 Bitter Kitten Media