At times, you may hear Nick Drake echoing in the thoughtfully strummed quasi-folk of Driftline, or Pink Floyd lingering near the edges of Wortham's voice and the band's extended, cascading instrumentals. And, well, you probably do, though they're just a few threads in a big quilt, not enough to start haggling over songwriting credits. The best trick Mandaring pulls off wouldn't even show up on the sheet music anyway: the ability play forcefully and quietly at the same time. Driftline is restrained without being relaxed, keeping the pressure on even when the sound's down and the pace slows. Wortham doesn't even step up to the mike until "Pure Led," the second song on the disc, is almost a memory, and it's only a brief appearance. He disappears again until midway through "Waterborne," retreating into the carefully layered guitars, the precise, unobstrusive drumbeats, the lush scenery the band creates on each song.
Even when Wortham is there from the beginning--such as on "Ignorance and Forgiveness"--it's easy for him to get lost among the wispy songs, his almost whispered vocals floating between the bars. But it's worth paying close attention to what he's saying, because every once in a while, every few songs or so, he'll sing something that will make you pause, such as when he breathes, "Instructions don't come with fire," on "Siren." Dunno why it makes me stop everytime, but it does.
Mark Andresen
It wouldn't hurt to stop by Good Records or CD World and pick up these discs.
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Nourallah Brothers
Nourallah Brothers
Western Vinyl
Salim and Faris Nourallah share the vocal duties on their first album together, but a better way of saying that would be that Salim and Faris Nourallah share the same voice, so identical are they that only their mother would be able to listen to Nourallah Brothers and identify who sang each song without the aid of liner notes. But Salim and Faris share more than just the voices they were born with, both capable of writing songs that sound as if no one else was meant to hear them, putting the kind of intimate touch on the 18 songs here (counting the two bonus tracks) that you'd feel guilty listening to them, if only the melodies weren't so inviting. It's the kind of record only brothers could make, two musicians who have a bond greater than anything you'd find on a stage.
The Nourallahs write, sing, and play everything here, save for an assist from drummer Bill Shupp on a couple of songs ("I'll Remember You" and "Who Are We?," in case you're wondering), and I still haven't been able to get all the way around it. Meaning: I've listened to it a few dozens time now, and I still hear something new each time, the subtle sound effects on "A Morning Cigarette" being the latest find. And each time there's a new favorite: the first few times around it was the one-two combination of "Public Skool" and "I Wanna Be An Artist," two of the least self-conscious songs I've heard in some time. Later, it was the sad-eyed "Down," and now, I'm not sure. "My Little Innocent One," which Elliott Smith left off XO? Or maybe "Heaven is the Day," which ups the ante for any Elephant 6 acolytes? I don't know. At any rate, Nourallah Brothers is the alternate soundtrack to Rushmore, a piece of the '60s that you can hold in your hand and in your head.
Prize Money
All Eyes On the Prize
One Ton Records/etherStream
Don't be fooled by anyone saying Prize Money "features members of Slowpoke"--it features all of them. Prize Money is Slowpoke, its starting lineup of singer-guitarist Dave Gibson, bassist Corbett Guest, guitarist Brent Dunham, and drummer Jerry Saracini identical to Slowpoke's final roster. And the songs on All Eyes On the Prize kinda-sorta sound like the ones on 1998's Virgin Stripes, Slowpoke's debut/finale for Geffen Records. But, then again, Prize Money isn't Slowpoke: Along with Gibson and Guest's newfound interest in keyboards, All Eyes On the Prize has more on each pitch than Virgin Stripes did. Maybe it's the addition of Saracini, who took over the drum stool after Virgin Stripes was recorded. (Damien Stewart played on the album.) Or maybe the group sounds different because, now that it has no more ties to Geffen, it's finally able to give up the pretense of supporting an album recorded in 1997.
Whatever the case, the name change was almost a requirement, since the musicians that appear on All Eyes On the Prize belong to a different band. Recorded by the ubiquitous Matt Pence, the album is propelled as much by Gibson's cynical lyrics--"Did I even think of this myself/Or did you put the words in my mouth?" he sings on the somewhat sarcastically titled "It's Not Your Fault"--as by the ever-present overdriven guitars and Saracini's muscular beats. Listening to Gibson's lyrics, you can't forget they've been around for awhile: "You wore our T-shirt/You were our biggest fan/And then you slept with all the other bands," he tells his "Rock 'N' Roll Girlfriend." "Hey, whatever happened to me?" Thankfully, Gibson never poses that question to Geffen in the lyrics--you'd never notice if he does--letting the songs just be songs, about girls and music and how well they go together. Which is all pop records like this one are supposed to be about.
