Indie Round-Up, Live Edition: Second Dan, Gandalf Murphy, Irion Redux - Page 2

The hilariously clever intro to the cool Americana love song "I Wish" mashed up a Johnny Cash hit with one by The Who. But the song itself, characteristically for the band, uses simple, common chord changes and plainspoken, intelligibly sung lyrics to create full-hearted, generous, but never aimless tours of the magical mystical musical cosmos.

Instrumental unison parts, subtly slipped into the arrangements, rap with the sung melodies and help build the simply structured tunes into major works. The songs are funny, deep, psychedelic, lyrical, and rootsy, and they don't need great length to make their statements. This is a band that earns its Floyd, Who, Beatles and Cash quotes.

Tink Lloyd played the theremin and accordion simultaneously on the inspiring title track. Lead guitarist Sharkey McEwen played something I've never seen before: lead slide mandolin. Drummer Tony Zuzulo's overhand style made his kit a churning perpetual motion machine. But if I had to pick the supreme moments from the set, they were those in which the content of the song fused completely with the band's expert collective musicianship. One such was the gorgeous waltz "Sullivan Lane," an ode to childhood imagination: "She wasn't one of the misscripted lovers/That moved with the others/She didn't know why/They would make fun of the way she would druther/Just float up and hover between earth and sky." Them's fightin' writin'.

A new song called "Tink" returned to the theme of love, as did "In Her Own World," which has a dancing classic-rock melody. Then came the other crest of the set, the long, mind-blowing "Talkin' to the Buddha," a slow-motion hurricane you want to run straight into. That's a pretty good description of the whole set, actually. Here's hoping the hoary winds of time blow Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams back my town soon, and to yours.

The band's website and CD Baby page only have very short bits, but you can listen to some full tracks at their Myspace page. They're on the festival circuit, playing upcoming dates in the Northeast and in California. Catch these Slambovian ambassadors if you can.

Article Author: Jon Sobel

Jon Sobel is Blogcritics' Culture and Theater Editor. In addition to reviewing NYC theater, he writes a semi-regular round-up of independent music releases. By day he is a computer professional and a freelance writer and editor, and at night he's a …

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