GRANDADDY – BLU WAV

We all know some groups are capable of doing great things while some do great things. Just as some albums remain classic pieces of work that can stand the test of time. But it’s never an easy feat, it takes work, determination, and skill. Sometimes it just may come naturally with no effort at all (i.e. Robert Pollard) but one thing is for certain, it’s not just the endless scribes listening to those albums that have a say in it. It’s the fan – the music listener – that determines it as well.

While the band has been around since the early 90s, it was Under The Western Freeway that had everyone talking back in ’97, and with good reason. The Modesto band’s dusty & lazy deliveries from song to song drew in listeners as the skewed pop was awash with brilliant musical backdrops. Back again with another set of songs is Jason Lytle assuming the Grandaddy moniker for Blu Wav (Dangerbird Records). At this point in his career, whether releasing material under is own name or Grandaddy is pretty much interchangeable, and this album is no different as he’s the sole songwriter and performer with the assistance of a few trusted friends so we can dispense with any other notions. Now the album follows the same patterns and structuring that has made the Lytle/Grandaddy-penned tracks: vast and expansive desert-like landscapes of sound that are both beautiful & expansive. “Cabin In My Mind” drifts across Lytle’s melancholic words as pedal steel offers stark county ghosts while keyboards hum in the distance. But it’s the percussion, which is tender, light, and powerful at the same time that brings everything together.

Lytle’s formula is a clever one, although he may not even realize it. The slow drawl and drift of every song here is filled with an eerie passion that doesn’t cease to amaze. “Jukebox App” is expansive and captivating in that same manner as you get an idea of what Lytle is playing but it’s never too clear in the subtle aspects of the notes and chords he pieces together. But it’s the quick minute and half deliver of the instrumental “Yeehaw Ai In The Year 2025” that has me questioning his ingenious musical talent and why he didn’t expand on this track even further. The experimentalist in him comes out in a creative manner as a piano sits alone over samples & a noisy backdrop. There’s definitely more beneath the surface of blips & bleeps.

This go-around, Grandaddy has truly outdone itself with Blu Wav with a wide array of textures from track to track. Jason Lytle truly is a master at his craft.

BARREN WOMB – CHEMICAL TARDIGRADE

Noise. Some don’t understand the subtle nuances of what sometimes constitutes a recorded piece of material and just relegate it to a wall of incomprehensible nonsense. By some, I may or may not be referencing family members who have had enough of everything I listen to. Allegedly. But casting disparaging remarks on things you don’t comprehend, well, it is ignorance at probably its highest level. That’s a story for another time.

The duo of guitarist/vocalist Tony Gonzalez and drummer/vocalist Timo Silvola are the only two members of Barren Womb, which I’ve never heard of until recently. It comes as no surprise, but the Norwegian two-piece have a considerable number of releases under its proverbial belt and now adds to its collection with Chemical Tardigrade (Fucking North Pole Records/Blues For The Red Sun). The band leaves no room for who or what it is, completely unapologetic in its delivery of mind-numbing track fuckery and don’t let up from track to track. It might be easy to write the band off as just another frenetic noise band but its unmistakable heavy-handedness is difficult to avoid mentioning. For the most part, Barren Womb’s sound might be relegated to late 90s indie bands of AmRep fame, some going off to make reputable careers through their own sonic excursions. “McLembas” kicks things off with Silvola pounding those drums before Gonzalez makes his way in with howling vocals and dissonant guitar notes. But make no mistake, Barren Womb is a force to be reckoned with! Silvola barely leaves room to catch a breath as Gonzalez washes his guitar over those rhythms almost screaming from the top of his lungs.

You can’t take anything away from Barren Womb as it offers up a diverse cast of songs that expand beyond what one might think it would. “Campfire Chemist” is littered with melody as it begins with both musicians singing in unison before it rages and explodes into an unsuspecting underworld. This one is probably tame by Barren Womb standards but it’s infectious as the impactful melody and rhythm sets everything to stun. This is the moment the band seems to become vibrantly refreshing. The band tries to hide behind abrasive vocal deliveries and its loud rhythms but these are songwriters and they know what the fuck they’re doing with melody, and stop/starts all around the catchy song structure. Once you turn towards “D-Beatles” you understand it has nothing to do with John, Paul, Ringo, or George. Instead we get lyrics that start “Give me shelter/give me Helter Skelter…” which refer to the band itself within a D-deep dive. The song itself seems to also take from Motörhead rhythms, not flagrantly copping but enough to raise an eyebrow or two. Any way you cut it; it works.

There’s no pause button as far as the band is concerned, taking a repetitive mode in “Illiterati,” which is relentless in its delivery. It’s repetitive but not repetitious, there’s a difference. It’s some of those differences that make Barren Womb intriguing as “High Fructose Napalm Syrup takes a different approach with dissonant notes and screeching vocals, but the song’s delivery differs from the rest for the most part focusing on a couple of chords there.

It’s easy to stand with Norway’s Barren Womb as it delivers clever ideas within its song structures, straying a bit from conventionality on Chemical Tardigrade, instead not giving us what we wanted but what we needed.

GENTLEMEN ROGUES – SURFACE NOISE

Power-pop is such an open-ended moniker for any group; one never knows what to expect. If a recording is unsettling and doesn’t fit its requirements, it could simply end referenced within a post-apocalyptic downward spiral. Some have to tread lightly, focus, and think clearly about how to navigate a perpetual minefield of sweet or salty melodies. One must obviously choose wisely or succumb a dire fate.

But is this the issue with Gentlemen Rogues, that four-piece hailing out of Austin, Texas? The band has just released Surface Noise (Double Helix/Shifting Sounds), its sophomore full-length release in the band’s 13-year existence. While the band may have escaped many throughout the years, the quartet of Danny Dunlap (guitar/vocals), Josh Powers (drums), John Christoffel (guitar), and Dave Hawkins (bass, vocals), are attempting to change all of that. The band itself cites influences ranging from Jawbreaker to Superdrag but never becomes a caricature or carbon copy of its own heroes. That’s not a bad thing. From the start, the band brandishes its distorted guitars like swords cutting away at its detractors, not that the band has any but “Do The Resurrection!” pop sensibilities are undeniable and jarring. What does that mean? Well, this outfit plays with a fervor we haven’t heard in some time. The hooks just reel you in while Dunlap’s words and voice accent the band’s music perfectly. While the song is saccharine sweet, this isn’t your mom’s favorite bubblegum pop band. It hits just right in every single way. The album is rife with love songs but they traverse a different reality altogether. On the opener, the chorus “I want you but I don’t want to / I want you but I don’t want to, to want you / But I don’t want to / I love you when will you stop trying to kill me?” tell everyone everything we need to know about toxicity.

It’s “Involuntary Solidarity” that quickly follows that takes a different approach with a quicker pace where we’re hit with a strengthened melody on its own chorus, “I don’t want just anybody/I don’t’ need no antibodies/I just want to be infected with your infection.” The malignancy of a relationship seems to have moved into stalker status but who cares? The music is catchy AF while the lyricism is witty. Things just get better from that point though, with “Never The Bride” bringing down the house. It’s a raucous affair that plays within the realm of verse-chorus-verse musical structures but the hooks and shifts the band makes is unreal in the sense that it’s bound to explode at any moment. The shining moment definitely falls somewhere within “Days In The Dayroom,” again with Dunlap’s vocal delivery as he drags out those notes fitted over those dual guitar strums, while the rhythm obviously sets the tone. The melody and instrumental harmonies is pretty astounding. That basically sums up every song here but the harmonies on “Moonstruck” are incomparable while the frenetic pace of “Francy” elevates these Gentlemen into the stratosphere propelled just by instruments alone. But then I hear things I probably shouldn’t have heard. There are nuances to “Troubled Troubadour” that I’ve found as the track opens where the group slips into Boston – the band – territory. Oddly enough, you can hear a semblance of “More Than A Feeling” as the track turns in another direction altogether. It’s ever so slight.

There’s absolutely nothing negative I, or anyone else for that matter, can say about Surface Noise, which is blissfully compelling. The walls of guitar are inviting while the rhythm captures your attention from the onset. Gentlemen Rogues have filled this album with brilliant pop welts all across its surface…no pun intended. And yes, I did say “brilliant.”