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/
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/
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