Kolker - Antenna

Antennas is a solid blues driven album filled with maturity and heart by New York City’s The David Kolker Band. What is refreshing about this blues outfit is that it isn’t a traditional straight blues outfit but a band steeped in blues roots with the ability to expand over many genres – including the ability to trancend blues styles.

These influences range from Southern Blues (“Top of the World”), Chicago Blues (“Gilligan’s Island”), 90’s alternative rock (“Get’s You Down”) and even adult contemporary (“The Heartache”). Undoubtedly, the impetus for this diversity is celebrated in the guitar work and song writing of the band's namesake, David Kolker. The title track weaves with arching leads, accentuated with high harmonic pricks that feelingly tell of the unsettling frustration beneath the skin of the storyteller. On the inundated “How Many Times” his intro escalates with a melancholic 80’s Brit metal-like tweaking then this signature riff dissipates and weaves into Texas Flood-like colorations layered over jagged rhythm bursts reminicient of CSNY. This affinity for diversity couldn’t be executed with out the solid foundation of the thoughtful bass playing of Derek Layes, the smart snare and tom popping of Nikolaus Schuhbeck’s drum work, and Pete Keppler’s thematically accurate ivory work and percussion; particularly on evolving standouts “Top of the World” and “Happy Johnny.” Paul LeFebvre’s pedal steel playing is intuitive and infuses atmospheric moods of yearning and space, particularly significant on “Wave on the Water.”

Kolker’s vocals have an appealing warmth and calmness in the sense of a man wiser for having once been weary. His slightly raspy baritone showcases his ability to dwell in a ponderous calm while boiling underneath, characteristicly similiar of the control of Roger Waters (“Wave on the Water”). While on tracks such as “The Positive” and “Mean World” he exhibits a mature pain and heaviness in which John Mayer could take beneficial note. Lyrically Kolker’s many observations have a welcoming openness; sharing similar resonance with introspection and social outwardness of Adam Duritz from the Counting Crows, yet Kolker's conduit is more through his musical ability rather than atypical crooning. A skill he uses to his strength to best illustrate his everyman point of view.

Regardless of style, Antennas is a finite statement from The David Kolker Band in sending out an S.O.S. from the soul.

Aaron Simms

http://www.davidkolker.com/

STARK - Put it to Your Head

As it’s title implies, Stark’s Put it to Your Head is an album motivated by strong actions drawn from life taxing experiences, their effects, and possessing the individual will to over come them all and chalk it up to being, well, just life. It is the second release from this New York City rock trio, whose music and attitude is directly informed and reflective of it’s home.

What sets Stark apart from being your run-of-the-mill New York City bar band are their subtly layered style and the cohesive incorporation of that style. Their music is decidedly rock but not subjugated to blind genre predictability. The more intense guitar work of Josette infuses slight southern tinged blues riffs beside Lani Ford’s gritty punk bass rhythms (“18 Again,” “Disturbed”). While on the ditty “Dreams Come True” the entire band is able to successfully turn it down a notch via the foundation of Sweet Rob Endermann’s drumming; resulting in an indie slice of life piece that would could raise the jealousy of Liz Phair.

Vocally Ford has a clean, strong, and melodic alto with a slight vibrato that can draw you in as well as soar over you. Lyrically she is a straight shooter with an onus for tell-all honesty with little subtext that resonates simultaneously as both tough and tender. The yearning “Co-Dependant” depicts a star-crossed relationship with dichotomistic cravings. “This Day” is a tailor made rock anthem about discovering and owning up to ones own self-image. While the stand out “OH NO!” realistically captures the flood of emotions in that first instant of awareness of the inevitable.

The album closes with the acoustic “Butterfly,” a painful and personal “Dear John” letter that exhibits ugly strength and melancholic pathos out of its necessity for finality and moving on. A fitting end to an album full of life experiences from a city that could make anyone put a variety of things to their head and yet still have the will to live again.

Aaron Simms

http://www.starknyc.com/

Travis - Ode to J. Smith

Ode to J. Smith harnesses Travis’ knack for writing thoughtful and melodic pop rock and being able to implement that talent through larger sounding guitar and rhythm work; marrying the bold sound with delicate and ponderous songwriting.

Travis may have started out as a band whose mantra was proclaimed on their 1997 debut Good Feeling: “All I Want to Do is Rock,” but this quartet from Glasgow, Scotland has developed a following for their history of crossover UK indie pop hits such as “Side,” “My Eyes,” “Why Does it Always Rain on Me?” and “Writing to Reach You” which blend insightful and introspective lyrics with a winning mix of acoustic rock, banjo balladry, and Brit pop. Laying the groundwork for other successful UK counterparts such as Coldplay, Starsailor, Snow Patrol, and Keane.

On this, their sixth album, Travis ushers in a broader sound with more emphasis from their rock youth. Fuzz bass lead-in’s (“Get Up”), solitary guitar chords dropped in front of deeper tuned toms (the big chorused single “Something Anything”), and even a recorded choir (“J. Smith”) energize the songs to bring about a larger presence as well as fresh individuality. The other facit that make the songs so attractive on Ode to J. Smith is the thoughtful songwriting. Fran Healy’s lyrics have a natural contemplative deconstructiveness that caters to a broad appeal. He delves into the quandaries of making choices, ghosts of the fleeting past, the uncertain future, and the struggle to define relationships. On the opening track “Chinese Blues” Healy sings: “A million lonely people with their head in the sand/Trying to make some sense of what they don’t understand.” An exemplary highlight of one the universal applications of Travis’ ongoing struggle with life’s elemental mysteries. Most notably present in the appropriately titled “Song to Myself.”

In the spirit of exploring conflict through introversion, the album consists of many an ode to the hopes and fears of the people’s champion: Everyman, implied by the title J. Smith (being the most popular name found any city’s phonebook). These odes run the gamut of the human condition. From loyalty in “Friends,” to alarming fear in “Long Way Down,” and on to tender nostalgia in beautiful “When You Were Young.” Surprisingly, the album is absent of a traditional hidden track. But when you write “Something Anything” for Everyman, what’s left to hide?

Aaron Simms

www.travisonline.com