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Page 5
Highlight Tracks: "Paper" and "A-List"
Artist: ERIC MCFADDEN Album: Devil Moon The Scoop: A genre-straddling, jaw-dropping guitarist who moonlights as a touring member of Parliament/Funkadelic, Eric McFadden seems afraid of no musical challenge. His latest offering is a voodoo-haunted batch of songs, as beautiful as they are spooky. There are a lot of comparisons that crop up, and most of them have been made before; most importantly, the grizzled pipes of Tom Waits and the nimbly inventive touch of Django Reinhardt. McFadden seems attracted to the darker corners of human life, but he isn't without a sense of humor. His rendering of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" is a mischevious kindred spirit to "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." But McFadden also carries the sorrowful soul of a bluesman, demonstrated when he mourns wasted days ("Nostalgia Song") or bellows about the days growing so long ("Don't Make Me Explain"). Guitar virtuosos are hard enough to find; it's even harder to find one who has such a commanding voice and presence.Highlight Tracks: "Devil Moon" and "Don't Make Me Explain" For More Info: Visit http://www.ericmcfadden.com Artist: NORFOLK & WESTERN Album: Winter Farewell The Scoop: The electric guitar and crashing percussion of Norfolk & Western's "Slide (reprise)" isn't the loudest two minutes ever committed to record. Far from it. But taken in the context of the tiptoe-soft album that surrounds it, the song comes on with the surprise force of Dylan plugging in his amp. While, at the midway point, it wrecks what otherwise is a perfect bedside album, it also gives Winter Farewell a little touch of malice or discontent that serves the album well. Adam Selzer's vocals are so fragile that they're sometimes almost invisible, but there's a deceptive amount of texture to the melodies that surround him. Winter Farewell has a certain gravity to it that many albums, even good albums, lack. There's a blend of carefully constructed Selzer songs and spontaenously recorded tracks that feature various combinations of the band. While the boy-girl vocal contrast is a well-played card, the band would still benefit from heavier doses of drummer Rachel Blumberg on the mic.Highlight Tracks: "The Evergreen" and "Hegira" For More Info: Go to http://www.norfolkandwestern.org or http://www.filmguerrero.com Artist: POULAIN Album: For Passengers The Scoop: Although they released early albums by New Found Glory and Dashboard Confessional, L.A.'s Fiddler Records came to my attention only recently. The first batch of material I received from them was beguiling eclectic: the hardcore smash of The Bled, the Taking Back Sunday feel of Recover. For me, though, the package's most alluring prize was the new Poulain EP, an all-too-brief quartet of lovely pop songs from 22-year-old Magnetic Fields aficionado Isaac Lekach. The melodies on For Passengers--polite keyboards and gentle crescendos-are fleshed out by spacey atmospherics and the devoted melancholy of spurned lovers. Lekach has a voice that is well-matched to his music-strong but tentative, smooth but wounded-and it sometimes seems like he doesn't trust it quite enough to stand on its own. But, while his earlier EP With Fingers Crossed was criticized for lack of variety, For Passengers shows a young songwriter evolving faster than Darwin anticipated. It's a good EP that whets the appetite for something much grander down the road.
The copyright of the article Choice Cuts: June 2003 - Page 5 in Indie Music is owned by **. Permission to republish Choice Cuts: June 2003 - Page 5 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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