| CD REVIEW True Widow |
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Band : True Widow Being the son of artistic parents (and his father coming from a line of musicians), and following the demise of his Punk band Slowride (and that must've been in...oh, 2005...right?) singer/ guitarist Dan Phillips moved to Boston (Massachusetts) to follow a 2-year course in woodworking...along the side soaking himself in additional early forms of American decorative arts as well. Upon his return to Dallas, Texas in 2007, he got together with drummer Timothy “Slim” Sparks and bassist/ second singer Nicole Eskill, and together they started crafting the songs which they would later perform and record for their self-titled 2008 debut album, issued through End Sounds. The small imprint released only a small amount (according to US standards, of course) of the album, but in spite of the limited promotional means at their disposition, the band nevertheless managed to occasionally play gigs outside of their own state. An event which would change the band's position to their current one (being signed to the esteemed NY based label Kemado) came about when, with an upcoming Philadelphia gig in view, a fan sent an e-mail to the band, expressing his excitement about that. The band trying to return e-mails as much as possible, answered, and a “conversation” started to take place in which the fan asked what was goin' on with the band. Getting an answer of “Nothing Much!”, he asked whether the band had any demos of new material, and whether they would be willing to let him shop around the stuff to some people who might be into it. Kemadowas one of those “people”. And so the band got signed with a budget for their upcoming album, which was again recorded at Matt Pence's Echo Lab in the woody Texas area of Argyle. Reason for this choice is simply because Phillips has recorded with Pence on several projects in the past as well, and all of the records in his personal discography he's most proud of were recorded with him. Stylistically, the band's categorisation as a “StoneGaze” band is actually most apt, as the music is indeed a nice hybrid of (slow) Stoner Rock instrumentation with Shoegazer-styled vocals. What sets this band apart, is their use of two lead singers, who can either be complemented by the other in an harmonic way, or just do their thing alone...which makes for a nice diversity between the different songs. Of which there's only 8 on the album, by the way. There's also a short (not even a minute long) instrumental titled “Interlude”, and with two “shorter” songs (7 minutes between 'em), you get a couple of songs with a considerable length (the longest being album closer “Doomser” is just over 9 minutes long), leading to an album's length of just over 49 minutes...each and every one of which will be extremely enjoyable for those into this type of music. With Phillips learning from the experience from the first writing sessions for the band, he's also written more material to suit Eskill (who's occasionally ended up taking over lead vocals for a track after he had been singing it for a couple of months). Expect draggin' but catchy and somewhat hypnotic melodies, and sedate but seductive vocals, the whole weirdly attractive. I swear that when you put this album on on continuous play, you're really gonna have to force yourself to changing the disc in the CD-player (for whatever reason – in my case because I still have a shitload of other albums to review) for another one! You can find material by the band posted at (www.) truewidow.com (a video for “Skull Eyes”, one of the sorter songs on the new album and an Eskill solo, vocally), the band's facebook (same video), and no less than 10 tracks off the band's 2008 debut (could even be the complete album, I guess). Meanwhile, returning from a break from the live circuit, the band already announced a tour, starting with an appearance at several locations of the SXSW festivities. About my rating: it would most probably be higher than it is now, but I've also just come back from a break that excluded any music listening. Therefore I was unable to give the album all the attention I personally feel it deserves! I'm sure it might've landed in my year-lists would I have been able to give it a couple more listening sessions! Gee, almost forgot: this album will be available both as CD and as double 12-inch vinyl...goody, goody! 95/100 Tony. |