4
12 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
M MUSIC
THE UNIVERTHURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2003
Cliches with Harmonies by Getaway Driver
Reviewed by Aaron Passman apassman@kansan.com
Editor's note: In the interest of full disclosure, Nate Harold, guitar player in Getaway Driver, is also a Jayplay staff writer.
Here's some friendly advice for you: When you listen to Cliches With Harmonies, the new four-song EP from Get away Driver, don't read the lyrics.
Contributed art
Although the lyrics have the occasional moment of greatness, they too often resort to overused emo cliches like "How can you fight me/After everything is dead inside me?" and "If you keep me away from/These trains and stars/Will you know what to say/When you rip out my heart?"
Lyrical missteps aside, Cliches With Harmonies has some great musical moments, like the instrumental track
"Behind The Moon, Beyond The Rain," with which the band frequently opens its shows. Starting off slowly with harmonic guitars and alternating between loud and soft, all the pieces come together in a theme and variation.
Unfortunately, the best moment on the record lasts only a few seconds. Midway through "The Breakdown Script," the band stops the song suddenly, leaving only light drums and hand claps while the whole band sings together over it.
It's a nice moment — unexpected, creative and fun. But it only lasts for a few seconds before the rock n' roll kicks back in, leaving you wanting more.
Despite a few faults, Getaway Driver is one of the hardest working bands in Lawrence, and Cliches With Harmonies shows promise. Next time though, more harmonies and fewer cliches, please.
GRADE: Bas necessary for fun.
Hollywood Tire by JIM
Reviewed by Steve Vockrodt svockrodt@kansan.com
"Underage girls,booze,firearms,violent crime,etc."
The lead track of JIM's fourth album features an editorial remark in the liner notes claiming to touch upon what the band sees
For those perverts, drunks, NRA members and criminals, JIM's fourth album Hollywood Tire may or may not be worth looking into. For the rest, reasons to grab a copy of the Lake Placid, N.Y., band's work are few and very far between.
Usually combining elements of funk and rockabilly, and at times sounding one horn section short of an obnoxious ska band, any signs of musical competence vanishes at the sound of Sven Aurk's mangle handling of vocal duties.
Vocal rhythm and harmonies fall by the
wayside throughout most of the record. The slipshod vocal performance, however, does go hand-inhand with the lyrical content
Contributed art
of the album. Most songs deal with references to drinking, unemployment, alternating themes of sexual frustration and machismo, gun fighting and police records.
The sound itself on the record usually bears a repetitive effect-laden rhythm guitar coupled with somewhat effective and
occasionally impressive lead guitar lines by Aurk. Dick Bailey Fitts' overusage of walking bass lines and Mick Korpton's plodding drumming weight the attempts at rockabilly sounds.
When combined with the same uptempo style throughout most of the record and aforementioned vocals, the 60-minute running time of the album can be a rough hour to sit through.
Occasional attempts at diversifying the band's sound are particularly laughable. Evidence of such shows in "Never Gonna," perhaps the first rockabilly endeavor in the art of hip-hop. The song becomes particularly ironic when coupled with "Limprock," a song railing against suburban white kids who listen to and imitate rap artists.
All in all, the album displays a multitude of such self-contradictions, ranging from semi-effective music clashing with loathsome vocals and lyrical content, or the band trying to portray simultaneous images of kindred lovers and wild-eyed pimps. The one constant throughout is the overall poor quality of JIM's most recent release.
GRADE: D+
SEE REVIEW ON NEXT PAGE
Cursive wows crowd with old,new
With a highly anticipated album on the way, the Omaha-based band Cursive launched an aural assault on the eager Bottleneck crowd Saturday night.
Now in their eighth year, Cursive band members appear to be growing more comfortable in their skins as they tore through their 45-minute set. Relying heavily on material from the upcoming Saddle Creek Records release, The Ugly Organ, Cursive seemed eager to introduce the audience to the new songs while maintaining a sense of devotion to the older fans.
This is what makes this band great: Members allow the audience to witness their musical evolution by exercising songs from their entire catalog, all with the same fervor and excitement as the new songs.
Although the band emphasized its new works, members presented songs in a way that didn't seem as if they were trying to get people to buy the new record; they were content with playing music they wanted to play.
Nate Harold
nharold@kansan.com
REVIEW
Singer/songwriter Tim Kasher was the
CURSIVE ... A
Where: The Bottleneck
When: Last Saturday
focal point of the evening as he divided his time between whispering quietly and maniacally yelping. With onstage banter reduced to polite thanks and comments about haircuts, Kasher effortlessly switched between his sullen, mournful singing and agitated screaming. Now fully recovered from a collapsed lung he suffered in June of 2002, he looked and
sounded like a man truly thankful for his job. Alternating between guitar and keyboard, he tackled the rise and fall of the song structures with ease, making the role of the gifted singer/songwriter look easy. Kasher's undeniable ability to project his emotions through his compositions is what makes Cursive so appealing to an increasingly broad audience, as evidenced by the sold-out crowd hanging on to every note.
Drummer Clint Schnase and bassist Matt Maginn together create an impenetrable rhythm section, in which guitarists Kasher and Ted Stevens layer their contrastingly noisy and hushed contributions.
The addition of Gretta Cohn on cello adds a new layer of melody and control to the occasionally chaotic sound of the band, giving the older songs a new feel and makes me wonder how they ever did it without her.
With the batch of new songs and a collection of old favorites, Cursive did not dis-
Jered Soares/Kansan
Tim Kasher guitarist and lead vocalist for Cursive pours his heart out into a song on stage at the Bottleneck on Friday January 24. Cursive is touring in support of their up coming album The Ugly Organ to be released March 4. appoint. Its cathartic performance and impossibly tight execution proved it was a band that continued to improve on an already effective formula.
Harold is a Weskan senior in communication studies.
www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com www.kansan.com