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BELLE & SEBASTIAN
The Life Pursuit
Rough Trade/ Matador
Beffe & Sebastian was m a rut. The
band's sound always teetered between
sublime and soporific. but up until now
now even its own members seemed to
be having a hard time staying awake
The lirst sign ol change was a single,
‘Your Cover's Blown.* not inaccurately
called the 'indie Bohemian Rhapsody"
tor its quasi-epic scope and shifts be
tween disco and car-chase music, and
an absolutely revelation in terms of the
variations that could be worked on the
basic B&S sound
The Life Pursuit starts off like it s
back in that rut. all pianos and heavy
reverb and acoustic guitar But then
track three. ’White Collar Boy,* starts
off with a total T-Rex stomp via heavy
synth and crunchy drums (B&S.
heavy? Imagine'), and it's like a whole
new (better) band took over The rest of
the album mixes traditional B&S songs
with ones done in various early 70s
styles, from glam lo funk to one. 'Song
lor Sunshine.* that either sounds like a
Parliament slow jam or Ween parody
ing a Parliament slow iam
The gambit works, and Belie &
Sebastian sounds more vital than it
has in years It helps that the group is
more stretching its parameters than
changing them^-there are no major
instrumentation changes and you can
see precedents in past work it also
helps that the gtam arxJ funk songs
are actually really good They're taking
these familiar styles and putting them
through the Stuart Murdoch filter, and
they emerge as cute little mutants The
Lite Pursuit could have been a major
stumble, but instead its the first great
album ol 2006
Michael Barthei
BRANTLEY GILBERT
A Modern Day Prodigal Son
Independent Release
Less hard-rocking Christian (which
is what one would guess from the al
bum cover, in which Mr Gilbert stares
soutfully out a window while displaying
his guns in a shirt with the arms cut oft
that reads. Tm not perfect, just forgiv
en’) and more Chesney-ish. this debut
from the young Jefferson. GA. singer-
songwnter does a decent job with the
slightty sensitive country thing This
isn't to say a wussy album, just that
it's not a Toby Keith honky-tonker lor
the most part. Gilbert has a pleasant
enough voice, though his tenor isn't
as strong as many a more established
CMT artist
Conventions ol the genre are
mostly adhered to. with songs about
Southern girls (*G R I T S’). lamenting
the loss ol small-town life ("What's
Left ol a Small Town*) and. you know,
authenticity
This is not to say it’s neces
sarily a bad thing to include such
elements—music has its checklists
just like classical literary lorms—but
simply an acknowledgment ot their
existence 'Friday Night’ is one ol
the stronger and taster-paced tracks
and cant help but be colored by one's
knowledge of Gilbert s own high school
football experience, while "Live It Up*
could potentially get a foot tapping On
the whole, the tone doesn't reach as
hard for traditionalism as the lyrics do.
with less twang than you'd think and a
bit more rock, the production on high-
pitched guitar notes is occasionally
uncomfortable on the ears and theres
nothing to sweep one oft one's teet
Hillary Brown
Brantley Gilded is playing at Last
Cali on Thursday, Fed 9
an epic at best
AN EPIC AT BEST
There Will Be Ram
Two Sheds Music
Local lour-piece An Epic at Best
fulfills all up-and-comer expectations
with its debut release There Will Be
Ram What does it sound like 7 Why. it's
a genre I like lo call ptemo Yes. I made
that up. and it comes from the words
piano and emo And even though I
hate ascribing ihe e-word to anything
likable. An Epic at Best is definitely
emo But while it only occasionally
wanders into melodramatic territory
(‘Don't Rush Home.* and ot course the
live favorite ’The Day Stephen Finally
Set Himself on Fire lor Katie* which
vagueiy alludes to another casualty ol
Athens' incestuous dating scene), the
most remarkable element ol the band's
sound is the kind of confidence in the
members' musicianship as a unit that
goes unfeigned—it's quite a treat and
keeps the emotions from getting too
thin-skinned
Vocalist-keyboardist Robert Gunn's
piano never tries to heroically take over,
nor do Sam Collier’s stirring guitar
licks, leaving plenty ol room for an ap
propriately fender and dynamic rhythm
edion Gunn delinitefy has one ol the
best voices in town, and the record
does |uslice to his vocal aplomb Not
once does he crack or dip olf key. even
at his most distraught. Collier pulls
eft some enviable vocal harmonies,
especially in Ihe dashing, destined-for-
hitdom *WeiQht ot Words *
Even with such pleasing voices
featured prominently, some ol the most
sublime and satisfying moments on the
record are instrumental 'Cold Weather
Romance* and ‘Carolina* are both so
likable and affecting that with the new
surge of interest in bands with indie
credentials ready to go big time, it’s
easy to imagine any ol these songs as
mood music for some hip network TV .
show. As Ihe lirst record for a young
band with such a mature sound, here's
to hoping There Will Be Rain is a sign
ol more extraordinary things to come
Christa Tinsley
BELLYACHE
Porkchops and Milkshakes
Independent Release
Hot and dusty. Depression-era.
soft-shoe-shuffling-rair»y-day-mo<xty-
btues from the jazz side of the tracks,
just four stops short of hobo-folk cen
tral and one connection Til swing city.
That's Porkchops and Milkshakes, the
debut four-track EP from local brothers
Austin and Caleb Darnell
The disc opens with the pained
Southern lament 'What She Ain't.*
setting the tone as it rolls out real slow
on tracks of ambling hollow-bodied
guitar and solemn upright bass On
this lirst track. Austin transposes lan
guid. beaten-down-and-broken lyrical
couplets like ‘You know it hurts me
like a dog bite / Yes it aches just like a
dog bite* and ‘She cuts me just like a
war wound / You know it burns like a
war wound.' finding solace alongside
a bridge of haunting singing saw and a
sailing whistle, while water falls crisply
amongst a background ol faint analog
hiss. “Hard Times in Georgia* is a
slowly rusting junkyard lament with
jaunty basslmes, scraping percussion
and a distinct Muddy Waters-meets-
Woody Guthrie character
Once again ’Days Bleed* relies
on Caleb's upright bass lo set the‘
tone before Austin’s gruff and acrid
Tom Wails-style lyrical imagery is *
contrasted agamsi a melodic chords
worthy ol a Frank Black acoustic ses
sion. The song winds out with the Two
brothers singing in fractured rounds
like a circling memory that wont be
repressed *1 Bought a Poison* closes
out this charming but brief EP with a
sense ot barefoot, barefaced truths.
Ben Gerrard
CAST KRUG
Saw Mill Man ?
Locust ’
Before we spin this singular record,
let's observe live minutes ol silence
lor every genius seething in a vacuum,
every ‘local’ musician who's touched
by the infinite, but never graced with
an appreciative audience, every one-
ol-a-very-few-of-a-kind artist who well
never hear, who will await an ear into
the grave and beyond There’s too much
good stuff to hear in a lifetime.
Cast King lives in Old Sand
Mountain That's in Alabama He is 91
years old In Ihe '50s, he recorded some
forgotten sides for Sun Records, then
retreated to the woods to play in peace.
In 2005, producer Matt Downer stalked
King’s persnickety hide lor months until
he agreed lo cut Saw Mill Man, a disc
with eerie, hypnotic powers
Cast King has enough smooth
melodies and self-deprecating wit to
spread across rural Antarctica, but his
power lies in his voice Imagine William
Burroughs recording a country record,
assuming he was a Southeastern labor
er (no! an.art-drunk trust-fund brat) and
his vices were gulped (nol injected)
The lyrics on Saw Mill Man deal
more in painful memories lhan painful
experiences. Our rehexes numb us
to Ihe former The latter hang in there •
and devour us The booze brings the
pain out of the beaten man's chest and
places it beyond his control.
There's some elegantly inspired
guitar work from Downer and drums on
one track King and his acoustic rule
the record, but can! govern its outer
ten Jones The negative space cries out
like the wind on a clear night These
songs have oeen lonely longer than
they've been alive
We almost missed this
Emerson Dameron
WESLEY COOK
We've Been Here Before
Independent Release
Wesley Cook is a solo singer-
songwriter who grew up in different
parts ot Europe and Asia, but most
recently, he's called Athens home The
sell-released We've Been Here Before
is CookS first lull-length album, and
a debut that shows great range in me
young artist s repertoire.
A sell-taught guitarist. Cook packs
no accompaniment but his six-stnng.
which he picks, plucks and strums
with enough verve and eclecticism
to keep things moving swiftly in the
background In *How IIS Gotta Be,*
both Cook and guitar adopt a confi
dent swagger, led by rapid narration.
“Burning Bridge* is. on the other hand,
a soulful meditative ballad and ‘Spanish
Dancer,* a singular dose ol flamenco
CookS classical guitar background also
comes into play here and there, as on
the melancholic ‘A Letter Home ’
The albums a little lengthy (almost
50 minutes) for just voice and guitar
(and cello on one track), but We've
Been Here Before is nonetheless an im
pressive lirst outing It also serves well
as a capsule ol the differing styles that
CookS music has adopted since he be
gan playing guitar at a very early age.
ditched the instrument lor a spell, then
started again from scratch Perhaps the
addition ol some minimal accompani
ment (piano, mandolin, percussion,
etc ), though, would make the line
corners ol his songs really shine.
Michael Andrews
447 East Clayton St.
(706) 548-7233
Open seven days a week
Why Give A Musical Gift
This Valentine’s?
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embaiassing lingerie mistakes).
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4. Lasts a lot longer than flowers.
5. Nothing says romance like a song
yon wrote tor them.
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FEBRUARY 8.2006 • FlAGPOLE.COM 35