Maybe it's the lazy way to do it. Knowing me, it is most definitely the lazy way to do it. But I know that whenever I write about music, I try to place it in a genre -- even a genre that I make up on the spot -- or compare it to something I've heard before. I just don't have the vocabulary or the talent to be able to describe music any other way.
Bands and the people who try to help them get the word out do it, too. I get emails all the time saying things like "RIYL: Dinosaur Jr., The Beach Boys, Celine Dion, Slayer." Well, not really; but you get the idea. That's why I find it so interesting and refreshing that Ocean Grove's Black Wine describe themselves as "no core." From the band's Facebook page: "They play all kinds of music and prefer to not be forced into sounding like one thing." Black Wine are also a democracy. Each member writes. Each member sings.
On Yell Boss, the band's fourth full length, Black Wine stay pretty true to their "no core" aesthetic, delivering a collection of songs ranging from -- and, yes, I'm gonna do this here and for the rest of this piece -- pop to lo fi to hard rock. That's not to say that the album is all over the place. It's not. There is a stylistic connection among all of the songs that I think harkens back to late-80s / early-90s pre-corporate indie and punk.
"Breaking Down" -- about a plane crash on the highway -- switches back and forth between an aggressive-sounding verse and a more melodic chorus to become Black Wine's version of power pop. Drummer Miranda Taylor sings over some beefy guitar chords on "No Reason," but the group vocal on the "Love me for no reason" refrain gives the song kind of a 60s Summer of Love vibe. Taylor again takes lead vocals, singing over some simple guitar, on "Familiar" whose title here has the meaning associated with a couple of the "frequently visited song topics" cited by the band: myths and cats.
The album's centerpiece -- coming a little past the halfway point -- is "Rime." It opens with Taylor singing a verse from an English folk song ("Time to Remember the Poor") and then begins its careening take on "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Bassist J Nixon, who wrote the song, takes lead vocals; and guitarist Jeff Schroeck provides some dark and foreboding shredding.
And I have to mention the cover of the Guess Who's "No Time." I love covers; and this cover of, maybe, the greatest Canadian breakup song of all time is a good one.
So, yeah. The only way I know how to write about music is to compare it to stuff I've already heard. Maybe that's lazy, but I hear a lot of the stuff I like on Yell Boss. The fact that each member of Black Wine writes songs and takes on frontperson duties at various times probably contributes as much to the variety of Black Wine's music as any concerted effort not to get pigeon-holed into a genre. Whatever it is that makes it happen, I think "no core" is right up there with my favorite types of music.
Yell Boss is out now on Don Giovanni Records. You can stream the album over at Black Wine's Bandcamp page.
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