FEBRUARY REVIEWS
by Mike Baron
VALLEY LODGE: Fog Machine (Tee Pee)
This new Valley Lodge has an epic feel, like the beginning of a great movie, and it does not disappoint, with one whomping, stomping, clanging, chiming song after another, like a carnival train of brightly colored cars. Every song is a standout, but I particularly like “Come Back to Bed,” with its shredding guitar and bigfoot stomp, “It’s Alright,” which brings a touch of T-Rex glam, “I’m Your Man,” which shares DNA with Splitsville, and “Keeping This World Alive,” with a monster bass that swells up like a sounding whale. The talking guitar on “Days of Our Lives” can talk all night, as far as I’m concerned. Valley Lodge also makes extensive use of cowbell. Christopher Walken is dancing.
www.valleylodgehq.com
BILL LLOYD: Working the Long Game (Spyderpop)
Bill Lloyd, whose Set to Pop is a classic, returns with a pitch perfect set of power pop that draws on the Britpop invasion of the sixties and seventies, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Chad and Jeremy, Beatles and Kinks, material similar to the Red Button and The Offbeat. Lloyd veers toward a softer sound, often playing acoustic, as in “Wake Up Call,” where he sings the first chorus accompanied only by acoustic guitar, before the strings swell up. The song would be just as effective without them. “That Face” would make Billy Joel smile. “What Time Won’t Heal” expertly alternates major and minor chords, which every good pop song must, while “The Day That I Break Down” would be a good fit for Elvis Costello. “Interrupted” is more pointed than most of these songs, with acerbic guitar. But they’re all great.
BLANK PAGES: Into the Ether
Blank Pages are instantly identifiable due to Greg Potter’s unique sense of melody and singing voice, in the same sense that you can instantly identify a Marshall Crenshaw song. But where Crenshaw’s melodies are sweet and multi-hued, Potter’s are astringent and bracing. John San Juan of the Hushdrops is the only other songwriter that comes close. Potter makes a feast out of very little. Potter uses a mostly gray and blue palette arranged ingeniously. It’s all in evidence in this four song EP, beginning with the title track, which throws in a sweet harmony in the last chorus. “Let It Flow” suggests The Turnback, but where the Turnback often sounds like its cramped, Blank Pages shows you the world in a bottle. I can’t recommend this and their last full lengther, Before Your Summer Fades, too highly.
