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Rock and Reprise.net |
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Album Review |
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THE WEAVER TWINS Still think music sucks? You just don't get it, then. Disappear Here magazine, or at least Tom Leins, gets it. I get it. Evidently only a handful of people do get it, though, the rest whining their way through the sea of pablum handed us by a bleeding and terminal music industry intent upon squeezing every drop of blood they can from the turnip they created. Wait! I have an idea! Let's repackage every lame superstar act there is, convince fans that remastering means something, and jack up the price. The public is stupid. They'll do anything we ask, if we ask right. And we do. Well, you do. Myself, I have had enough Beatles and Rolling Stones and Springsteen for one lifetime (and probably more), and the crap that passes for Country these days--- sheesh! No more. I clear my desk. Time for the new and exciting. And it doesn't get much more exciting than The Weaver Twins, my friends. Tom Leins, critic for the aforementioned Disappear Here, finds the opening track Ugly Children close to perfect in terms of pop, but what really hit me was the second track, Mounting the Scaffold. Complete with amphetamine acoustic rhythm guitar, intense and slightly distorted vocals, overamped Animals/Alan Price organ sound and shoe-on-the-desktop percussion, it is over the top exuberance. All you need is background talk to take it to the highest level and--- wait! There it is! There goes my job as producer. Oh, well... That's not the only track on the album, either. I agree with Leins that Ugly Children has a great pop feel, a ska/pop synthesis from the dark side driven by punchy guitar and, again, that organ. And I have to confess that wherever the music goes, and it goes to some great places, that organ sound takes me back to the 60s. True, Ugly Children does not even approach the 60s in sound, but, oh, that sound... Digit lays down a plodding, brash bass beat, sliding blues guitar scree giving way to tasty electronics and voice singing something about monster--- ?Is the monster you?? giving way to organ wind-down. The Talking Heads have nothing on the Weavers, Black Dues having a bit of that early Talking Heads enthusiasm, with British accents, of course. You getting the idea? Fayre is something special, I tell you! Darts is power pop superiority straight out of the late 60s and early 70s, a magnificent fusion of sounds producing flashes of the great Brit Pop sounds of yore, but updated. I love this song. It's two in the great one-two punch with Grrl in Dolorous Blue, melody and chords produced in just the right amount. Those two tracks are as good as any flashbacks to the glory days of British Pop as I've heard in quite some time, psych influences spot on, the ghosts of Status Quo (Pictures of Matchstick Men) or Small Faces (Itchykoo Park) driving the band to celestial heights. It is a high. Words fail me. You have got to hear it. I'm not really sure whether Fayre is available in physical form or not (note: CDBaby has since added the CD to its catalog). While I am not a fan of MP3s, it is available for download from numerous sources: cdbaby, among others. I can't believe I'm saying this as I have been an opponent of digital downloading from the beginning (hey, if you want the music, you should get the package), but this is an exception. If digital is the only way you can get this, get it that way. If, however, you want a hard copy, you can check it out through the band's . While you're there, leave them a note. A little encouragement can do wondrous things in this brave new world of music. Sure beats the hell out of the old one. Frank O Gutch Jr.
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