Album Review

Silver Tongues

Black Kite

Karate Body Records

 

“Can someone tell me where I’m going; I forgot, caught up in the showing…”

-Silver Tongues

“Greater Times”

On their debut album Black Kite, Silver Tongues have finally given a voice to despondence.  Something so dark but passively optimistic that you can’t help but want to submerge yourself completely in the quiet madness these nine tracks.

The album opens with a stomp, a clap, and a single note.  Sparingly arranged “Highway” is uncomfortably intimate.  It’s like rattling around in the skull of a man who’s caught in the fall between a ledge and the sidewalk below.  Dave Cronin’s vocals are soaring and angelic, no question.  But he also sings with a visceral urgency that drives the underlying pulse of Black Kite – and makes it an album that’s impossible to ignore.

Beyond the fact that my irrational ear decided the opening chord of the title track sounded The Beatles’ classic “Yesterday” – this is a band of innovators.  A group of guys making something they’ve never heard but have always felt.  And ultimately Black Kite is a mellow album.  The band does a fine job of layering without sounding abrasive or self-indulgent.  The tracks are often completely unassuming, but drive you to peel away each instrument, one-by-one, to catch a fleeting glimpse of the album’s emotional core.  Michael Campbell’s guitar, while rarely ever stepping into the forefront – leaves stark, plucked notes all over the record, opening each track up so it can breathe.  And when you have a band capable of such instrumental depth, it opens up Cronin’s lyrics to carry the weight of profundity throughout this collection.

It’s easy to get lost here, the way one could get lost in Springsteen’s Nebraska.  Black Kite is haunting, no doubt, but there’s a sprawling airiness to it, as well.  They seem to want to exist in that calmness that happens before an inevitable catastrophe.  One of the few lessons I’ve learned in my thirty years is that there is an internal peace that comes with embracing pending doom – and that that embrace is precisely what Silver Tongues have captured so superbly on Black Kite. 

By the time his voice swirls into the last song, the nostalgic “Home” – you’re ready to wind back around to a stomp, a clap, and a single note.

They will be performing January 28^th at Headliner’s Music Hall w/ Cheyenne Marie Mize, and Dare Dukes.  $5, 9:00 PM

33 1/3 (#82 ): Dinosaur Jr., "You're Living All Over Me"

331/3 (#82):
Dinosaur Jr.
You're Living All Over Me
by: Nick Attfield
 
If you haven't read any of the books from the epic 331/3 series of books, then you might not know what to expect.  They hand an album over to a writer - who is then allowed to write a book on that specific album in any way he chooses, letting his/her creativity take over in the telling of very real stories.

When it comes to Dinosaur Jr.'s You're Living All Over Me, Nick Attfield writes a compelling disertation on the relevance of the album, if only to the band.  You're Living All Over Me was not their flagship album, or best selling album, or even their most critically acclaimed album.  But it was album for a young band that defined their sound.  That hinted at genius of their forthcoming opus, Bug.  And in many ways set wheels in motion for bassist Lou Barlow's poast-Dinosaur-Jr. career with bands like Sebadoh and Blues Implosion.

Written in six non-linear essays, Attfield presumes that the music on You're Living All Over Me strays from the band's roots in hard core heavy metal - on account of now being in their late teens, they finally had sex and exorcised all of their sexual frustration.  He recounts their run-ins, tours, and inevitable influence on their own mentors, Sonic Youth.  However, one of the more incendiary sections of the book, Attfield implies that Barlow's acrimonious split with the band two years later might've had to do with his own bi-sexuality and guitarist/singer J. Mascis' tendency to make homophobic cracks.

The book is fascinating.  They're a band where much has been written, but little has ever been said.  And after Attfield interviews all three members of the band you end up with a compelling look at the early career of what would become one of Alternative Rock's most influential bands.