Pedals

The Aluminum Group

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 24, 1999)
• Original Release Date: August 24, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Minty Fresh
• ASIN: B00000JPDE
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #264,913 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1999
When producer-du-jour Jim O'Rourke urged the Lavin brothers to "explore new areas in pop music," they set off on a voyage of discovery to rival Arctic adventurers. The compositions on Pedals are epic in scope and effervescent in execution, as crooningly cool as the best of Roxy Music and as enigmatic as Stereolab's more exotic moments. --Tod Nelson

Amazon.com
For years Chicago has been pegged as the next hot spot on the musical map. But where other scenes have been packaged and, therefore, homogenized into a singular (usually loud and brutal) sound, the Chicago scene has centered around a cast of revolving musicians who approach their work as utility players, punctuating albums with a deft blast of quasi-jazz, lo-fi clatter, or ambient buzz. The Aluminum Group's the Navin brothers take the sound of bright 60's and early 70's AM pop like the breezy vibe of the Association or Bread and give it a darker, modern edge. (Imagine Love's Arthur Lee meeting up with Joy Division's Ian Curtis for a late night card game.) Horn, strings, background vocals, and banjo are added to the free and easy rhythms by noted scenesters from Edith Frost to producer Jim O'Rourke. The real stars, however, are the songs, which are elaborately and painstakingly arranged into pocket symphonies to take with you wherever you go. --Rob O'Connor

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chapter 6: In which this reviewer culpably circumlocutes, August 10, 2000

By	David Kipp (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

I buy a lot of records. Oftentimes I indulge in grotesque sprees of purchasing, branching out in any number of disparate but comparably pretentious musical directions. At the end of such periods there's inevitably a hiatus, wherein I (rather foolishly) think that I've bought everything interesting that there is to buy and become somewhat disillusioned with things in general. Then I discover a record like Pedals.

It can happen in a number of different ways. On the occasion in question it was the words "Jim" and "O'Rourke" (not - I repeat not - the words "Burt" and "Bacharach") on one of those little blurby stickers that helpful record store staff like to put on the front of CDs that beckoned me. I'd never heard of the Aluminum Group; however, being such a devotee of Mr O'Rourke's oeuvre (in all of his capacities), I thought that it couldn't hurt to buy the record. Suffice it to say (and here, at any rate, I find myself becoming lost for words) that when I first heard Rrose Selavy's Valise it was like the sun breaking through clouds.

What else can I say about this record? The above is what's really important for me about it. I'll go ahead and casually and in a very pretentiously postmodern fashion drop some handy pop-journalism clichés (among them words such as "lush", "orchestral" and "lounge"), as well as mention glowingly the virtues of this record's warm, bright production, the beautiful yet sadly ironic songs and the honey-and-caramel cabaret-club vocal stylings of the brothers Navin; however, in the end what really encapsulates this record for me is Rrose Selavy's Valise and that very precise moment when the clouds rolled away and the rainbow appeared.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pedals is a must for any critical listener!, November 5, 1999

By A Customer

Anyone who has heard the Aluminum Group, knows that no one today writes more beautiful melodic structures than the band's frontmen and creative epicenter, John & Frank Navin. From albums, Wonder Boy Plus to Plano and now Pedals, the Aluminum Group continues to take it's listeners on a wonderful ride through intelligently crafted songs that are simultaneously complex yet sublimely subtle. While Plano showcased the bands ability to deliver a cache of melody driven power pop singles, Pedals is more richly involved. Tracks such as RRose Selavy's Valise, Miss Tate and Easy On Your Eyes each seem to be more of a concept album than an individual song. Briliantly sharp seques seperate changes in meter, melody and mood as stories of art, literature, love and loss unfold. Well oiled and superbly orchestrated, this 5 man, 1 woman band, (with special guests), deliver techniquely as well. Despite playing songs that often require the tightest of performances, where silence and softness are often a focal point, this group of veteran and classically trained musicians always nail it! While Wonder Boy and Plano may have inspired you to say, "I haven't heard melodies like this since the Brill Building classics," Pedals will have you thinking, "I've never heard melodies like this!" Truly original!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Listen, June 2, 2006

By	L. Fowle "lamplighter" (north carolina) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a great collection. It doesn't ultimately matter who it might sound similar to (and all comments of pretentiousness leveled at the Aluminums need only be applied to those critics who name drop bands/recordings the Navins might conjure up for the potential listener). One of the least pretentious and heart-rendering songs is $35--the last cut. Listen to it when you think nothing else might work for how alone you feel.
The Navins are also the nicest fellas around. Go see them live if you can and have a drink or two with the two of them.