I'll admit it. I've been letting myself go a little bit. Going to so many shows often means staying up late and enjoying a few beverages. That's played havoc with what used to be my almost daily run. I've also kept myself pretty busy with work, the blog, and the cooldaughters throughout the day. That's given me plenty of excuses to miss my runs most days.
Yesterday was December 1st. New month. Almost a new year. I decided to see if I can't get myself back on track. I hadn't planned on bringing back the Sunday Run Album Review, but yesterday I took am by Ovlov out with me on my short comeback jog (thanks to a recommendation from Mike V in his Best of 2013 post). Once I heard the record, I had to write about it.
Ovlov, from Newtown, CT, are the trio of Steve, Theo, and Jon Hartlett. On am they receive assists from several friends, including Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz. Dupuis figures prominently on opening track "Grapes," providing the female half of the male / female harmonies that, combined with the heavily distorted guitar noise, give the track a very My Bloody Valentine-esque feel. Album-closer "The Great Alligator" goes to that well again with some buried-in-the-mix vocals and what sounds like some tremolo-assisted strumming.
After the My Bloody Valentine show at Hammerstein Ballroom a few weeks ago, I left thinking about how MBV have evolved almost past the point of creating "songs." The band got me thinking about pure sound and how sound can cause your brain to conjure up its own images and feelings. Ovlov haven't yet taken things that far. The songs on am still possess, for the most part, conventional structures and achieve what bands like Dinosaur Jr., Nirvana, and The Pixies have been so successful with over the years: Bathing more traditional rock and pop in noise and distortion. Playing with sounds, but still making songs.
"The Well" and "Milk" feature some discernible lead guitar lines poking out through the fuzz. Standout track "Where's My Dini?" is downright pretty as it builds to a crescendo of noise; and companion piece "There's My Dini!," with its spoken verse and singsongy chorus is pure Pixies-inspired noise pop.
I've pointed out before that there have been several records this year that deal in the sounds of 1990's indie and alt-rock. am definitely qualifies as another entry in this group, but I don't think it's a pure nostalgia piece. Instead, I think the best bands in this category -- and, based on am, Ovlov is one of them -- employ the sounds of the last, great era of rock music in the service of producing some excellent songs.
am is out now on Exploding In Sound Records. I think I'll take it out again with me on a run today. 2 days in the month, 2 runs. I'm on a roll!
No comments :
Post a Comment