Customer Reviews

The Static Vs The Strings Vol. 1

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My first Centro-Matic album, even if it's not a proper album. The tracks cover the time from when Will Johnson first started recording up to what was recorded for Navigational. But this isn't some b-sides collection. It plays like a proper LP, has the feel of one, and pummels the senses just like Redo The Stacks does. If you like anything Centro-Matic produced prior to Distance and Clime then definitely grab this not-an-album album.

I've been a centro fan for more than five years, and somehow, amazingly, they just get better and better. This album brings tears to my eyes, my heart swells, and I want to run home and write songs. Since I can't, I just have to hope that these four guys won't ever quit ripping my soul out with their particular brand of incredible pop-country-rock. While their website describes this album as "leftovers," I can say that only a band as prolific as this could consider these gems the leftovers. The rockin' "Calling up the Bastards" opens the album but only hints at the excitement of "Curb Your Turbulence (Rock Show is Coming)." "Wrecking this show" makes me want to weep while the sheer agony of "Say Something/95 Frowns" and "The Execution of Some Sixty-Odd Drummers" rips my heart up and stomps on it. Of course, these heart-breakers are equally balanced by the other rockers, "Keep the Phoenix in Slow Motion," "D. Boon-Free," and "Neighbors. Habits. Downtown." While this isn't centro-matic's best album (it is the leftovers after all), it's still better than almost anything else around. Ever.

Centro-Matic is best discovery I made this year... since it's almost 2000 I can say this as a fact.

Take a listen to them at MP3.COM

Have a good dinner!

In the hands of any other band, an album like The Static vs. The Strings would merely be something to fill the gap between real records, a way to buy a little more time until the group could come up with enough songs for a new album. The disc is more or less a stopgap -- Centro-matic's follow-up to this year's Navigational is due in January -- yet it's almost impossible to think of these songs as leftovers. The Static vs. The Strings is less a collection of scraps than it is a way to keep up with Will Johnson's frenetic output, the mountain of songs that have piled up since he first sat down with a four-track recorder a few years ago. And even though The Static is intended to be the first in a series, Quality Park would almost have to release a disc every month just to stand a fighting chance. It may have taken Johnson a while to write his first song, but he's no slouch when it comes to making up for lost time.

The Centro-matic Web site (www.centro-matic.com) lists 137 songs, beginning with the ones that appeared on Johnson's first cassette, Non-Directional Jetpack Race. But the site's inventory doesn't include anything written after February of this year; it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that he's closing in on 200 by now. But Johnson has always been able to balance quantity with quality. He doesn't just write a lot of songs; he writes a lot of great ones, songs that take maddeningly simple melodies and make them sound so beautifully complex. Johnson's and violinist-piano player Scott Danbom's voices wrap around each other like lovers, stretching out their harmonies on "The Execution of Sixty-Odd Drummers" until they almost break. But the only thing that's really in danger of breaking is someone's heart; Johnson can sing sad songs, such as the acoustic "You Might Need This Now," better than anyone this side of Jeff Tweedy.

The fact that just three of the album's 14 tracks have turned up on previous Centro-matic releases ("Calling Up the Bastards" and "Turning Your Decisions" appeared in different versions on 1997's Tympanum EP; "Say Something/95 Frowns" showed up on last year's self-released Line Connection Aim cassette) only serves to underscore how marvelous each one of the band's records is. And this one is no exception. "D-Boon Free (Ninth Grade Crime)" is one of the band's best efforts yet, all cooing backups and handclaps, with just enough keyboards to make a difference. "Neighbors, Habits, Downtown" is even better, Johnson's wobbly guitar balancing on top of drummer Matt Pence and bassist Mark Hedman's rickety rhythm. The song doesn't just threaten to fall apart; it does. But you've never seen such a gorgeous mess. - Zac Crain

Here they are, the most prolific band in the area, Centro-matic. Gauging the amount of press they receive in the local rags (including this one), one might get the impression that Centro-matic's Will Johnson and his talented band mates are the only act in these parts worth covering. While not entirely true, it's hard to ignore The Hardest Working Band in Local Music, a group that's so consistently damn good. In just three years, Centro-matic has released three 7-inches, three cd's and a tape, with their next cd due out in early 2000. Their latest offering, Static vs. The Strings Vol. 1, is a full-length collection of out takes, alternate versions and unreleased material dating back to '96 that is being offered at the bargain price of an EP (roughly nine bucks). For just about any other local band to release such a collection so early in its career would be a grievous conceit, but Centro-matic pulls it off with grace and humility. Static showcases the band's range, from ballads to head-on rockers, each seething with the same sort of power pop intensity that can be heard on Centro-matic's bedroom-recorded 4-tracks and studio releases alike. Johnson possesses such an agonized, passionate voice that everything he sings, despite occasional forays into sarcasm and irony, sounds heartfelt and sincere. Thus the power-ballad "The Execution of Some Sixty-Odd Drummers," in which percussionists are strung up from boom mic stands then decapitated, becomes a tearjerker, and "Curb Your Turbulence (Rock Show Is Coming)" becomes a manifesto for their brand of no-bullshit, high-quality rock 'n' roll. - Eric Almendral