Album Review: Cricket – Sofa City Sweetheart

Lineup: Ben Fields (vox/guitar), Jeremy Winkie (vox/bass) and Matt Texter (drums/keys)

Location: Louisville, Kentucky

80s movies fans might recognize the 16 Candles reference in Cricket’s latest album title, Sofa City Sweetheart. Based out of Louisville, the progressive rock trio comprised of Ben Fields on vocals and guitar, Jeremy Winkie on vocals and bass and Matt Texter on drums and keyboards signify the distinctive sound that has drawn attention to the area, especially with the popularity of My Morning Jacket, VHS or Beta, and Will Oldham. (From this outsider’s view, Louisville, Asheville (NC) and Chicago, appear to be producing a trend of some of the more interesting rock performers.) That distinctiveness, too, is a necessary quality for aspiring bands trying to rise through such a saturated Kentucky rock scene. Says bassist Jeremy Winkie: “it’s a good place to play and get your chops, but you can’t make a living playing music here. Everyone and their mother plays drums or guitar or can sing. There are really a load of good musicians here. Too many to get recognized, so the bands with the biggest crowds tend to be the ones with the most friends socially.” The band is also competing for ears in a scene that is, according to Winkie, divided into frat-styled hard rock with some emo thrown in on the one hand and indie rock on the other, “which is difficult for us, because we have hard rock, indie and progressive influences, which I think confuses people.”

Cricket has a somewhat lengthy history in trying to find their present sound. Initially founded by vocalist/guitarist Ben Fields’ oldest brother Rob and neighborhood friends, it existed as a mostly non-gigging band in the mid to late 90s. Around 2000, Ben Fields and youngest brother Justin began writing music together and taking the band in a more serious direction. With David King on bass, the new lineup recorded an eight track EP, “Motel Magazine.” When King left for college, his vacancy was filled by long-time friend of the Fields brothers, Jeremy Winkie and the band kept busy with gigs, performing nearly every weekend in 2005 and sometimes playing three shows in a day. When drummer Justin Fields left the band in 2006, the band was put on a rather abrupt hold until Fields found Matt Texter, an old friend trained in music theory and of course, drums.

The 12-track Sofa City Sweetheart marks the band’s debut full-length album. Though the band’s foremost identifier is probably Field’s high pitched vocals, perhaps its best quality is the amount of instrumental variation the three piece wields, which becomes immediately apparent in the transition from the first track “de Nova,” a short unimposing and dreamy setup of wah-wah guitar, to the second track “Paper Trees, Violet Hearts,” which kicks off with a quick drum stick countdown followed by speedy guitar repetition as though barely nudging the listener to immediately prepare for the shift.

Much of the album wavers between tasty heavy-gain licks (“Here We Are,” “The Coast Off LA” and “Movie Trailer”) and an almost early 90s alt-rock mix of whirling and sometimes sporadic bounciness that is particularly highlighted by Field’s lead guitar and Winkie’s smooth driving bass. As the intro to “Losing It,” the combination almost seems reminiscent of the bluesy-rock mix of early Red Hot Chilli Peppers. But it works best on the track, “Strokin’ It,” which also has a sort of Ninja Gaiden sensibility about it at the end (it’s not-so-secretly the author’s favorite track).

“Steams Flow” begins almost like the Pixies “Where is My Mind,” the slowed beat, whirling clean guitar, and feint background additions that sound like flowing wave give the sense of watching the oddly beautiful mass demolition in Fight Club, though Field’s high pitch style and the layered vocals give the impression of almost playfully indie, standing apart from a generally more ferocious presence. It’s a loose, elegant closer, and if listening to the entire album on repeat, serves as less of a nudge for the brief, dreamy introduction of “de Nova.” Yet, despite the intensity and playfulness of the albums, the lyrics of some of the tracks feel less adventurous, at least on tracks where rhyming patterns seemed curiously obligatory.

Nonetheless, carrying the torch of the Cricket name for better than ten years, Fields, Winkie and Texter have found a sound that works incredibly well and produced an album that is sure to grow on its faithful listeners.

Album Review: Black Betty

Lineup: Jonas Fairely (vox, drums) and Ana Serena (vox, guitar)

Location: Vancouver, Canada

Unfortunately, in this zine, we rarely venture far from the comfort zone of indie and pop rock bands in our reviews and recommendations. But, the fans of heavy-handed guitar bands who have surprisingly stumbled upon these pages might find solace in the Canadian co-ed retro-metal duo, Black Betty. The fashionably distracted guitarist Ana Serena and lead vocalist/drummer Jonas Fairely pictured on the inset of the self-titled debut released on Rick Bennett’s (Starchild vocalist and guitarist) Georgia-based label, Twin Earth Records, look like they’re striking poses for an interchangeable clothing boutique advertisement. But, they’re no bullshit.

Bennett’s Waycross, Georgia trio, Starchild, was featured in the third issue of Montag. “It seemed unlikely that there would ever return the long-haired, heavy-handed jam bands that capitalized on 1970s metal, disappearing when early 90s hard rock and alternative were tossed aside for the next rock epochs. But, bands like Starchild, Malefactor, Valkyrie and Black Betty carry that torch through the club scene. Rather than speed, crunch and slick production polish that define recent heavy metal, the bands on Twin Earth Records have more in common with the earthy, moody and ambient classic metal and hard rock bands of the 1970s-slower tempo, heavier bass lines, lingering lead guitar, hypnotic echoing vocals and spiritual lyrics.”

Trippy, titanium-rich Black Betty has created a nearly perfect reconstruction of 70s hard rock, at its forefront of which is Fairely’s accent-tinted hollow wailing suggests a controlled, bluesy and soulful ode to Zepplin and Sabbath (Sunshine, Hearts of Fire). And, at times, lyrics of metaphysics and personal spiritual struggle hint obvious influence in early Bowie like the spaceship-navigated homecoming on the album’s first track, Astral Messiah. Momentarily, when the tempo speeds up (House of Chains), Serena’s bust-you-in-the-mouth style and Fairely’s crash-heavy drumming share kinship with early 90s hard alt-rock. By itself, Black Betty have produced a worthy debut, but as a revivalist band, Black Betty lack a distinctive identity that might be a truer novelty had most bands on the Twin Earth label not chosen similar and sometimes identical sources of inspiration.

(Until the better quality video shoots for Black Betty are posted, entertain yourselves with fellow Twin Earth records band, Starchild’s video for The Futurist)

Album Review: No More Kings

Album Lineup: Pete Mitchell (vox), Neil Robins (guitar, bass, keys, cello, percussion), Jeremy Burchett (drums, percussion), Adam Degraide (bass) and David Claasen (fiddle, violin)

Band Lineup: Pete Mitchell, Beau Burtnick, Daivd Grant, Tim Maglothin, Christian Wojcik and Josh Taylor

Location: Los Angeles, CA

While some people may not immediately recognize the name No More Kings, it is likely they will have already seen the band’s video for their Internet-hit single, Sweep the Leg, which was a top-ranked feature on You Tube earlier this year. Paying homage to the Karate Kid, the song tells of the misunderstood, star-struck bully and former Cobra Kai fighter, Johnny Lawrence, whose karate career ended with Daniel Larusso’s crane kick. Just following the orders of a relentless Sensei during that fight, he pleads for redemption. Billy Zabka, reviving his role as the now middle age and disenchanted Johnny Lawrence, writes and directs the video which reunites some of the cast mates including Ralph Maccio and Martin Kove, though not all appear in their former roles. (Saved By the Bell’s Dennis Haskin’s also has a role in the introduction)

Vocalist Pete Mitchell and producer/guitarist Neil Robins wrote the self-titled thirteen track debut, which Mitchell calls a “thank you letter to the 80s.” More than half of the album is humorous and imaginative pop funk-rock tracks, some similarly paying tribute to vintage pop culture, and almost all from a first-hand perspective. Zombie Me narrates the singer’s transformation to the undead. In Michael (Jump In), Kit, the talking car whose voice was originally supplied by actor William Daniels on the show Knightrider, urges disillusioned Michael to help save the world. Leaving Lilliput is told from the point of view of the giant of Jonathan Swift’s novel, Gulliver’s Travels. On these faster tracks, wah-wah and bluesy guitar, atmospheric synths and strings, thick drums and backing harmonies compliment Mitchell’s soulful vocals and playful lyrics. Though, the tracks Someday, Mr. B. and even Michael (Jump In), it is pop rock to the point of being Disney-esque.

The rest of the album is mostly forgettable ballads which include the lonely, lounge-styled About Schroeder, the heavier Umbrella and This, and at least the more memorable accordion-accompanied Girl in the Sea. Mitchell and Robins appear to do better with faster tracks. And, even when performing for small audiences, No More Kings unleash loads of energy, sound fit for bigger venues, and visible comradery, making it clear that this is a band that enjoys what they’re doing. But, while it was something of a novelty act that has helped the band to achieve its major initial successes, it might take a more personal direction to keep them there.

(featured in this clip is the newer version of Sweep the Leg)