| Issue
#79
Oct. '05
Here Is
… The
Sawtelles 2nd release (and first on Connecticut’s
ThinManMusic
label),
continues with the sparse
minimalistic “nerve rock” sound found on their 2004
self titled (subtitled:
yellow) release. However, this time the husband & wife team of Peter & Julie Ricco elected to
forgo the bass,
creating a LP with just guitars, drums, and vocals. Using a fuller
production, we hear
sounds coaxed from Peter’s various guitars and
Julie’s stripped drum kit (no
kick drum) that make excellent use of reverb and double &
tripled tracked backing
vocals to exude a vibe that surrounds us with an ethereal feeling.
While the sound envelopes us, it is to The
Sawtelles credit that they also give it space to breathe.
Usually sound this rich and
expansive becomes too bombastic and smothering, yet here the sound
provides areas that
allow us to float around and explore where it may or may not lead us
to, and more often
than not, it leads us to the lyrics, thus the appeal of The
Sawtelles.
One of my first true idols was Elton
John’s lyricist Bernie Taupin. Bernie’s
lyrics almost always seemed to take on a grand epic type theme in a
story telling form.
His stanza structure was usually four to six lines with a standard
rhyme scheme, and very
wordy with many, many stanzas. Part of what I loved about
Bernie’s writing was his
ability to lay out the story. Well, 30 years later I have found
Bernie’s contemporary
equal, Peter Riccio, except that Peter uses a fraction of the words to
draw the same
interest and response from me that Bernie Taupin did all those so many
years ago…
Peter uses his words in the same way that The
Sawtelles use their instruments – sparse,
minimalistic, allowing spaces for us to
fill in the blanks, yet while many of the lyrics seem but an
afterthought to the song
(based on their sketchy images and seeming lack of depth), they are
essentially the
driving force behind the genius of The
Sawtelles.
Most of the time it’s a line or two that sticks out, that
sticks in your head, that
has you contemplating how it fits into the song, it is that line or two
that will have you
diving deeper into each of the 10 songs on
Here Is ...
Front Page News
opens the disc with the
narrator relating a screw up: “Heard about
my
front page news,” that led to an inevitable break
up: “fate cast a stone at me.”
Then when the 2nd
verse states, “I’m not
strong enough to
hold on / I’m not brave enough to let go,”
the intensity of the lyrics kick
in. With a beatnik, electro-acoustic vibe shimmy-ing along to
Julie’s dreamy, airy
backing vocals we fall head first into the limitations imposed by
whatever major misdeed
preceded the obliteration of the relationship.
For the most part, it is relationships and
the
many facets of them that are explored
through the lyrics on this album, while the music carves out the moods
involved within
each. And within each we have many spaces left between both the music
and lyrics that are
meant for us to crawl inside of and look around to assess and determine
just how the
artist, or we, intend for them to evolve. That’s why the
‘60s style
pseudo-psychedelic augmentation works splendidly here. Live In A
Dream seems to cross The MaMas &
The PaPas with an outtake from The
Who’s Tommy – using what would be 60s subliminal
drug references,
instrumentation, and production work to express the dreamlike state of
love. Where only
the lover can talk him down, just to realize that it isn’t a
dream, but actual
reality, and it is good. It is a high unto itself and all those missing
pieces can be
found within each other and within the dream.
Happy,
in turn, gives a rebuked lover’s view of a former significant
other: “Are you happy / now
you’re by yourself / are you
happy / Are you happy / do you really need no one else / are you happy.”
Listen
as the song plays out on the traipsing snares and the high-strung
acoustic reverb of
guitar. Listen to the toms commanding the background as
Julie’s otherworldly backing
vocals soar with an emotional draining as Peter’s heartfelt
(heart on sleeve)
falsetto proclaims, “Always push
away / everyone you need.”
Saturation
Point contains one of the best stanzas in a long
time: “Rebel Rebel stole my heart /
I can’t help but
wonder / What it would be like / If we met / When we were younger.”
With sparse
guitar chords resounding in a piano like manner off the driving rhythm
of the toms, we can
take this in any direction, but mainly the subtle affection makes me
smile.
Even with other songs, such as Wires (using
a dreamy
soundscape of textures
drenched in a harmonic convergence that can easily parallel a trip
through the ethernet,
while delivering a simple statement of how the wires that connect us
also have the ability
to disconnect us. “Now
it’s easy to be /
far away so close / It’s easy to live / together alone”)
and Russian Dead
Soldiers (that tells the depressing tale of
alcoholic partners and their tragic
state of affairs that are hidden behind all the empty vodka bottles),
it is the ability
and effort of The Sawtelles to dig
deep into
the bowels of each composition that propels this disc into the elite
and intense territory
of grand artistic expression through resigned minimalistic schematics.
The epitome being Floor It (Stay), deliberate
cymbal blocks crack
and tremble in syncopation as the bare guitar chords ring hollow,
producing an edgy
quality that allows the tale of a major, hurtful, and possibly
relationship-shattering
fight to unfold. With telling lyrics such as, “No
one ever said it would be easy / like all those times when tears begin
to fall / On our
own we’re all so prone to crashing / Look at all the pieces
on the ground,”
and “Pride and Ego always know
what’s
best,” and “blow
right through the
stop signs in our head,” and “I saw it
escalate,” we know this is not a good thing.
Confirmed by “The morning after is
when I am in pieces / instant
replay looping in my mind,” and we know how this
will turn out, or do we? For
with the final lines we hear the statement: “Staring
blankly into space / no one says to think that I should stay / no one
says to think that I
should stay / no one says to think that I should stay”
- with high
falsetto backing vocals proclaiming:
“ahhhhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,”
after
each repeated line. Finally, they give way to an angelic voice raining
down with
forgiveness telling our broken and repentant lover to “Staaaaaaayyyy.”
But mostly it is Peter’s
pontification
of Bernie Taupin in Down Is Up
that
showcases the amazing lyrical work presented throughout. Stealing
– OK, borrowing
– chord progressions and lines of lyrics directly from
“Where To Now St.
Peter?” off Elton John’s 1970 release Tumbleweed
Connection, The Sawtelles give us a
song about a song.
Commenting on the meaning of the song, or perhaps, the meaning of all
song in general.
Truly exposing the heart and soul of why the music is that important,
how one song can
help to shape, change, create, and inspire a life/lifetime.
“Hey,
don’t blame me if I still believe
/
Hey, don’t blame me if I still believe /
Dig me searching for clues left behind /
Dig me searching for clues yet to find.”
Ditto that.
Here Is
... by: The Sawtelles
is available now for: $6.98 +s/h*
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