Big Stir 2024
& THE TRIKE SHOP –
And Still...
Fresno’s finest strike back – from their heart and in the heart of the city.
Those who follow this ensemble don’t really hold their breath where fresh releases are concerned. The collective’s records were few and far between enough for four years to distance the band’s 1997 debut “Mad Pop Inventions” from the Californians’ sophomore effort “A-Sides & B-movies” and for twice that term to separate 2010’s “The Underground Garden” from 2018’s “Make” – so, given the pandemic which saw Blake Jones’ issue a mini-album under his own name, the wait for “And Still...” has been relatively short. As is the platter per se, clocking in at a mere half-hour yet offering quite a lot of food for thought and soul, and gusto too, to counterbalance its duration, what with almost half of the groovy songs on display not crossing, per the group’s wont, a two-minute mark, but bearing a rather heavy, albeit melodically alleviated, load.
Ray Davies would turn green with envy if he heard the likes of the delicate ditty “The Queen Is Dead” which puts a certain piece of the same title to trivial shame, the sunlit “String Lights And Hold On” which finds adventure in routine, or the cha-cha-cha-shaped “Fascist Bumblebee Winter Formal” which reflects the singer’s experience with The Proud Boys. These cuts are possessed of tuneful figures and riveting settings, and the listener’s bound to get hooked on it all right from the start as, riding the acoustic guitar-and-piano wave, “Record Cover Girl” radiates smiles and worries in equal measure, with Jones’ slight raspy voice exposing his arresting vulnerability, before “Mock Stoner Voices” flaunts tidal vocal harmonies. However, while “You Put Theremin On My Hype Sticker” lets the combo’s leader indulge in a retrofuturistic instrumental flight and the raga-tinged “Used Record Stores” goes for nuanced psychedelia, “Dreaming About Sleeping” sculpts the players’ reveries into a burlesque sort of bossa nova that’s spiked with Mike Scott’s acidic guitar passages and spanked with John Shafer’s thunderous drums.
For all its histrionics, though, “What’s Enough” – in which Mike Snowden’s bass and Scott Hatfield’s ivories shine – reveals unexpected dramatic depth in the ensemble’s performance, and the transparent “Mr. Saturday Sun” bares their rhythmic brilliance, yet “Shake Your Dress” and “We Love The Tower” which are drenched in cosmic rhythm-and-blues exude seductiveness that’s rooted in a single line of their titles and call the audience to visit Fresno. And the audience might accept the band’s invitation, because “And Still...” should make one feel at home there, with these five guys more than mere acquiantances.
*****
