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| The Glands |
It’s my heart that’s in the right place but my head that’s in the
clouds,” the Glands’ Ross Shapiro sings on “Swim,” thus summing
up his band’s peculiar charm. The Glands are a rare thing indeed: an Athens
band that doesn’t seem to be influenced by any other Athens band. They don’t
belong to the eclectic Elephant 6 collective, and their tight blend of pop and
rock is miles removed from the loose jangle of early REM or the party-movin’
workouts of the B-52s.
The band’s eponymous sophomore album, released last year on
Atlanta’s Capricorn Records, is a glorious hodgepodge of styles, ranging from
witty, intelligent pop to crunchy, guitar-driven rock to contemplative folk.
It’s a friendly record, one that sounds immediately familiar yet is strikingly
original and resourceful in its execution.
One of the first things you notice on the album is its sense of
spontaneity, a result, perhaps, of the band having no set approach to making
the record. “Sometimes there is no real plan to how something is supposed
to go,” says Shapiro. “So we’ll go into it with the plan to
experiment until something good comes out of it.” Such playfulness is
evident throughout The Glands, from the yawning violin in the coda of
“Swim” to the great tectonic bass shifts that move
“Lovetown” to the seemingly lackadaisical construction of “I
Can See My House from Here.”
The album’s diversity of sound comes not only from the band’s
loose approach to recording but also from its use of multiple studios and
producers. In addition, the Glands are listed as co-producers on each track.
“The different studios,” Shapiro explains, “have different
ambiences. Each producer works in a different way, and since our songs go all
over the place, it’s good to have no set habits. Plus, they’re all kinda part
of the band.” The result is a surprisingly diverse collection that shifts
moods often and easily, constructing hooky pop songs and murky soundscapes
with equal success — and never using the same trick twice.
Despite this eclectic quality, The Glands is a genuinely
cohesive collection. Holding all the disparate elements together, Shapiro’s
voice — utterly devoid of affectation — exudes a laid-back charm. Sonically,
it falls somewhere between Tom Petty’s matter-of-fact Southern drawl and Bob
Dylan’s nasal whine, but it also suggests such newcomers as Mercury Rev’s
Jonathan Donahue and Doug Martsch of Built to Spill. But Shapiro’s voice
displays more resonance and distinctiveness than those comparisons suggest; he
is no better or worse a singer than those above but very different,
simultaneously disaffected and completely relaxed.
Genuinely intriguing and sharply crafted, his lyrics possess a
conversational quality that matches his vocal style. There are flashes of
insight on songs like “Straight Down” and “Favorite
American,” and “Soul Inspiration” bristles with an alarming
ambiguity. However, he conveys more meaning in the sound of his voice than in
the words he sings, so lyrics remain secondary to the album’s overall
sound.
The rest of the band — Doug Stanley, Andy Baker, and Neil Golden
— display a funky versatility, genre-hopping from indie to pop to straight-
ahead rock with a dexterous flair. The opener and would-be single,
“Livin’ Was Easy,” shuffles into a drum-heavy breakdown inspired, it
would seem, by Pavement’s “Summer Babe.” It laments having to leave
behind the simple pleasures of life — “Why did I go?/The livin’ was
easy/I had a room of my own/and the weather was warm.”
“When I Laugh” thumps along with a relentless momentum
and some endlessly catchy backup doo-doo-doo-doo-doos. “Swim,”
heralded by a short string intro, changes gear to upbeat pop, tricked out with
a bubbly piano theme. Taken together, the first three tracks comprise a
perfect opening: endearing, inviting, and unflaggingly upbeat. It’s not until
the fourth song, the beautiful, ponderous “Mayflower,” that the
momentum slows.
Through the course of 13 songs, the Glands also touch on classic
rock with pieces like “Straight Down” and “Work It Out,”
which actually have guitar solos, as well as slower, moodier pieces like the
evocative “Ground,” which centers on a start-stop guitar theme and a
spiraling organ solo.
But the album’s literal and conceptual centerpiece, “I Can
See My House from Here,” is its own creation entirely. A steady-moving
pop song at heart, it piles layer upon layer of percussion, guitar, vocals,
and a variation of the piano line from the Four Seasons’ “Oh What a
Night.” It has the spaced-out vibe of a remix, yet every sound feels
vital and central.
For collectors, the vinyl edition of The Glands contains
five extra tracks, which, on the whole, are fairly minor. Only “Something
in the Air” is truly worth seeking out. Its propulsive tempo and crisp
guitars match the mood of “Straight Down” and “Work It
Out,” while Shapiro’s boyish la-la-las and casual lyrics complement
“Livin’ Was Easy” and “Swim.”
Such a rare band has accomplished an even rarer feat: The Glands
have created a small masterpiece of precise sound and easy intimacy, and
Shapiro’s richly textured voice, paired with the band’s exacting work, reveals
new depth and detail with every listen.
The Glands
With The Go and The Final Solutions
Tuesday, March 20th
Last Place on Earth
Music Notes
by CHRIS HERRINGTON
Rockabilly Revival
To the extent that longtime Memphians Jesse Lee and Jimmy Denson
have been recognized, it’s usually been in relation to Elvis Presley. The
Denson brothers grew up with Elvis in the Lauderdale Courts housing project
and their father ran the Poplar Street Mission, which helped the Presley
family start their lives in Memphis. Jesse Lee Denson, roughly two years
Elvis’ senior, is said to have given Elvis some of his earliest guitar
instruction and mentoring. But thanks to a new import release from London’s
Ace Records — Long Gone Daddies: Original ’50s Rockabilly & Rock ‘n’
Roll from the Modern Label — listeners can check out how the Denson
brothers fared as artists in their own right.
This collection of obscure first-generation rockabilly sides
crams 32 singles and demos onto one disc, including Lee Denson’s “High
School Hop” and five cuts credited under the moniker “Jesse
James” that were performed by Jesse Lee and co-written with brother
Jimmy. These sides were cut in Los Angeles on the tail end of the rockabilly
wave for a label called Kent. “High School Hop” is a typical genre
exercise that, for all its energy, sounds pretty calculated. But the Jesse
James cuts are a little bit rougher. The surprising “South’s Gonna Rise
Again,” included here in its 1958 singles form and as a previously
unreleased demo, is a nervy, proto-Bocephus, scary-white-boy roots anthem with
group-vocal hallelujahs and lyrics like, “Down south of the Mason-Dixon,
friends/Rebels are a’rockin’ and rollin’ in” and “Save your
Confederate money, my friend.” It may have just been a prideful
rockabilly testament, but in 1958 I bet it sounded pretty sketchy. And then
there’s “Rock Daddy Rock,” which begins with the lustful cry,
“There’s a lot of 13-, 14-, 15-year-old girls .”
The Denson brothers are still in town and are anxious for people
to rediscover their music, which could be a problem. Last I heard, Shangri-La
Records in Midtown was trying to get some of these English-import discs but
wasn’t having much luck. If you’re interested, check with Shangri-La.
New Releases
Significant new records scheduled to hit the racks this week:
Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash — Walk Alone
(Ultimatum Music)
Eric Clapton — Reptile (Reprise)
Daft Punk — Discovery (Virgin)
Idlewild — 100 Broken Windows (Capitol/Odeon)
Los Super Seven — Canto (Columbia/Legacy)
Swag — Catch-All (Yep Roc)
