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Photos from Common Grounds, Gainesville / 11.21.09 Photos by Sean Cook. Pics from the Warehouse, 28 Aug From our dear friend Sean Cook (seancookphotography.com) For those who couldn’t be with us last week. If rock and roll is measured by the amount of sweat, there was a lot of rock and roll going on. Check out our latest promo video for tonite’s House Show with Matt Long and Eric Case (der, of Maida Vale of course!) Maida Vale committed one cardinal sin in its otherwise flawless debut release American Sun: the band recorded too few songs. Listening to this album is like jumping into a lake on a summer day, only to have someone grab you and yank you out of the water right before your head goes all the way under. You almost wish you didn’t start because the misery of the dip being over so fast is almost worse than not going in at all. Almost. The first track on the album, “Phos Hilaron,” is a minute-long soft instrumental that blends perfectly into the first full track, “Down in the Valley.” The music of “Down in the Valley” perfectly matches the title of the track. Soft acoustic picking and the introduction of Eric Case’s raspy but melodic voice are followed by drums, banjo, blues harp and electric guitar starring in a ballad dedicated to a different time. As the album continues, the listener is introduced to the bluesy style of “Bethany.” The title track, however, leans towards new-folk. The shortest and most acoustic song on the album follows is “Not Alright,” which focuses more on Case’s vocals than the rest of the album but closes with power. The album ends with three long tracks clocking in at more than five minutes each. The melodies and rock ‘n’ roll sensibilities of “Great Lakes” is reminiscent of early Counting Crows. “West Way” comes next with a county, banjo-tinged sound before the album closes with the southern/indie rock anthem, “Judgment Day. This album touches many genres in a very small space but it does so successfully at all turns. American Sun is a must have for fans of any type of folk/country/alt-country/rock ‘n’ roll. (Self-released) -Michael Aguilar New Band Photos added to Flickr We’ve added photos from our last several gigs as well as some fun ones to our Flickr account. |
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