Since I did Sloan a turn, I'll keep spreading the love for our Canadian brethren and tackle the final release from Montreal's superb Local Rabbits. Vocalists/guitarists Peter Elkas and Ben Gunning are perfect foils for each other. Their voices are very different and distinctive on their own, which plays out especially well in the song "Purple & Grey", a conversation between a penis and the brain which keeps it in check. I know, it sounds sophomoric. Trust me, it's not. In fact, it's a rollicking galloping tune with plenty of wit and a great guitar solo and a perfect drum track, though the outro could have been shorter. The band's songwriting has garnered them a lot of comparisons to Steely Dan. I hear it, but they have just as much in common with Thrush Hermit, if not more. Still, jazzy bits and smoothitude float on the surface of their terrific lyrics and tasty guitar, with some really well-placed synth and keyboards thrown under chord progressions that are well, well above the level of sophistication one usually sees coming out of a rock band. Unfortunately, this was their swan song. I haven't picked up their other releases yet, but I certainly shall.
If you're a fan of the Dan, the Halifax exposion, both, or just well-done rock music, get this.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Local Rabbits - This is it, here we go
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5 comments:
I got this at your suggestion way back when. Meh. The problem with being, perhaps, as nuanced as the Dan is that it's a specific I-will-or-I-will-not-like-this taste. And I simply do not like this. Oh well. Yay Denny!
I could probably get past the whole penis-and-brain conversation if you recommended the music highly enough, but as soon as you made the Steely Dan comparison, I knew I'd never listen. I hate Steely Dan far, far more than I could ever hate Ween.
Bryan: Your loss, dude.
Chuck: There's so much that ISN'T steely dannish, though. Like Bryan said, it's the nuance. The rest is just rock and roll, man. Really, really good rock and roll.
Chuck,
To echo what Master Cianan said. These guys do not sound like Steely Dan at all. In fact, shame on you for tainting the Dan with such a comparison!
Seriously, I just don't like it. I think the Steely Dan comparison is only notable insofar as you either love them or hate them, just for that niche sound they have.
No, there is more to the similarity than just "love it or hate it". There are jazz influences here and there, and there is a smoothness to it. That smoothness, however ought not to be confused with slickness, which is what the Dan have. Roger Nichols did not engineer this album. There are nuances and some sophistication in voicings and arrangements. That's the similarity. It's in the approach they take. The vehicle they choose, though, is a Mercury Monarch as opposed to the Dan's Lincoln continental. None of their songs could be steely dan songs.
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