R. Ring
Embers On A Sleepwalk (Video)
Don Giovanni Records
This quiet, subtle, trippy, animated video, directed by Joe Jack Talcum, captures the song perfectly. Line drawings and textured backgrounds move and ripple, creating a soundscape that will stay with you after the video is over. Another good video from the duo of Kelley Deal and Mike Montgomery, from their album War Poems, We Rested.
Andrea Weiss
The Anderson Council are new to me, but have actually been around for 20 years. They are very good and well worth the time to get into.
Peter Horvath, the leader of the band, was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.
Andrea Weiss: For everyone who knows who you are, there is someone who doesn't, so could you give us a brief history of the band?
Peter Horvath: I started the band in 1999 after my last band disintegrated(which was my doing…) The whole point of it was to celebrate my love for 60s pop music, just as psychedelic music was turning from a fun thing(with short concise songs that featured all kinds of kitchen sink craziness stuffed into two and a half minutes) into a spaced out, meandering thing that didn’t really interest me.
AW: Who are your influences?
PH: All those bands that put out two really great singles that didn’t hit the charts, never to be heard from again, at least until they turned in their purple corduroy pants and frilly shirts, bought some denim, and tried their hand at playing blues numbers. Oh, and the greats of the period and afterwards.
AW: There are a lot of English places and things mentioned in your songs. Are you anglophiles, or just people who like England?
PH: Amusingly, I have never stepped foot off of the North American continent, but damn if I don’t watch a lot of English TV shows and movies, and read period books! I suppose I need to get there at some point!
AW: Your songs are so positive and happy, which I like. They also sound effortless. Is that easy to do?
PH: I’ve written my share of sad and/or angry songs, but when I started writing these songs, I knew that they would be for an entirely different band. I suppose the songs sound effortless, as you say, because we rehearse a lot! It also helps that I tend to have a clear cut idea of what the song should sound like when I write it (or co-write it, in the case of all the songs on the new album). The guys in the band put their magic in there as well, of course. We are a band, after all!
AW: How would you describe your sound? Your songs rock with guitars. Would you say that’s an alternative to the current mainstream?
PH: I call us Psychpowerpop. I don’t really know what constitutes the term, but we like hooks, we like weird twists and turns, and we like songs, most of all. I don’t necessarily listen to a lot of current music, but if there’s a song in there, I’m in, whatever genre it happens to be.
AW: I like your adult take on love, like in “Buying A House.” Would you also say that’s an alternative?
PH: An alternative to what? Ha. I guess as you get older, you think less about sex, and more about doing laundry and the dishes? Ha again.
AW: Any plans to tour?
PH: We play shows whenever and wherever we can. Unfortunately, touring isn’t exactly feasible and/or practical at this juncture, so the shows we get are the ones we play. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re paying, we’re touring!
The Anderson Council
The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon
Jem Records
The new album from this long-running band is very good music for adults--that is, mature and grounded, where one is past dating, married, and, as their song says, “Buying A House.”
But if you are dating, then it’s “Alone With You,” the fun initial single from the album, in which the singer wants to be alone with his girlfriend.
The music is guitar-based rock/power pop, played just the way I like it--noisy, crunchy, melodic, and not sedate. The band calls it psychpowerpop. This is who plays what: Peter Horvath on vocals and guitar, Simon Burke on bass, Michael Potenza on guitar, and Scott Jones on drums.
So if you want some good, interesting rock, and something different, this is the band to get into. You’ll be glad you did.
Andrea Weiss
Graham Parker & The Goldtops
Them Bugs/The Ologist Song (Single)
Big Stir
The A Side is good, pretty much a novelty song about not wanting bugs around. It’s fun, it’s cute, and cool by the end of it.
But the B-side, “The Ologist Song,” is the gem. Sounding like “Heat Treatment,” the title song from his second album, it brings to mind his best 70s work in a slightly mellower fashion. It’s a sincere tribute to doctors and scientists, really anyone with a “gist” in their job title. If you’ve never heard him, one of the original UK punks, this single is where to start. Ditto if you have and wondered what happened to him. If you’re a fan, you’ll love this. I am, and do, very much.
Andrea Weiss