This week we discover an upper-case sound from some lower-case letters, a keyboard player with a terrible secret, and a country-rock gem.
INDIE ROUND-UP for April 21 2005
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CD: sundayrunners, self-titled
Shimmery pop with a hard edge never seems to go out of style, maybe because it satisfies both the "masculine" desire for toughness and the "feminine" for sensitivity. sundayrunners makes well crafted and executed melodic pop-rock that reinforces twin
truths: no one has yet been able to do it quite as well as the Beatles, but good things can still happen when you try. Randy Didderich and his team artfully mix airy melodies, tasteful harmonies and quirky, optimistic lyrics with hard-rocking choruses and dynamic changes inspired by both best 90s rock (e.g. Weezer, Live, and Soundgarden) as well, perhaps, as a bit of classic progressive rock (from the Beatles to Genesis).
It's hard to pick out particular songs when the whole CD is such a creative goulash. Diderrich and his collaborators have developed a singular approach to mixing guitars and especially keyboards into a seemingly endless variety of interesting, modern backgrounds, while his plaintive tenor singing has exactly the right balance of lightness of touch and emotional heft to bring the songs off with panache. Especially in their catchiest songs like "Elected," "Memories Left At Sea," "Half My Height" and "1993," sundayrunners should appeal to a wide range of pop music lovers, from Beatles fanatics to glamazons to Finnheads to those who remember when "indie rock" often enough meant originality.
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CD: Eric Goetz, Present and Accounted For
With a high tenor that's a cross between Graham Nash and Donald Fagen, Eric Goetz comes up with some good melodies and delicious keyboard playing - love the Rhodes! - but the material would benefit from fuller production and less cliched lyrics. Accordion, organ, and odd time signatures don't make up for the overall unremarkableness of most of the songs.
Goetz tries a variety of feels and flavors, including Latin-lite and spoken word, but although he claims inspiration from Tori Amos and Neil Finn, he really shines only when he lets out his inner Steely Dan, as in "Lied" - easily the best track - and "Sick." Those two jazzy pop tunes show where the muse seems to be really leading him. The sensitive singer-songwriter stuff just doesn't wash.
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