| Issue
#64
Jul. '04
The Sawtelles
self-titled debut (subtitled
“yellow”) is an exercise in minimalistic DIY that
produces a refreshingly
sparse, indie sound that subtlety runs much deeper when examined more
closely.
Picture yourself walking into a Greenwich
Village coffee house during the height of the
early 60s beat poet era. As you sip your herbal tea, a trio launches
into a groove that
produces a sound so unique that it turns your attention from the
libations to what is, or
should I say isn’t, happening. It’s not an acoustic
guitar, nor a soaring
electric, but what sounds as one tuned as that of a banjo. Yet, Peter
Riccio
produces a very un-banjo-like sound with it. It’s not a drum
kit, yet there are toms
and a snare, with symbols of course, but no kick drum. How can you lay
down a beat without
a kick drum? Julie Riccio shows you that
you need not overpower the beat
to drive the song. And where is the bass? Oh, it’s there,
supplying the rhythm so
effortlessly that you don’t even realize it until the 3rd
song, and once
you do, you won’t be able to shake the once overlooked Peter
Brunelli
again.
What sets this CD so far apart from what has
become the standard fare of these times is
the approach these 3 musicians have taken. Combining an intense
less-is-more musical sound
with lyrics that produce some of the best life affirming statements to
surface since those
of the 60s coffee house dignitaries and Peter
Riccio’s vocal style
(that recalls a young Michael Stipe), The Sawtelles
have created a
testament to the simple joys of life.
Some may call it avante garde, but
“Smashed To The Floor”
hands us a
comparison of child to adult, and the adult who wishes to still be the
child, but realizes
that life is not that simple unless you grow and change. It is the
allowance of change
that will lead you to “…imagine / Waking
up to find / You’re suddenly
all you’ve hoped to be.” That is pretty
straight forward.
Whether it’s the security of a
fragile relationship that is threatened by the past
(when it really shouldn’t be) in “So
It Goes” (it’s
here that the expansive spaces of the music
allow for the voids to be filled by the vocals that represent an almost
helpless yet
satisfied feeling) or the insecurity of a relationship that exposes the
privilege of
essential life in “Space Aged And
Girl Shy” where The
Sawtelles lay at our feet; “It’s
easy to forget in these times /
That it’s a privilege to / be at all / to / laugh it off / to
/ Live it at all / to /
love / to love at all,” the essence seeps through
and fulfills us in ways that
are difficult to express unless wrapped in the basic simplicity that The
Sawtelles
exude. They bring forth the realization that one of the most complex
human emotions - Love
- can be one of the simplest joys achieved when looked at it through
the eyes of love
itself.
And that central theme is no more present
than on “3 Cheers”:
one of the most positive feelings that one could direct to the physical
aspects of two
individuals’ love for each other. When our narrator sings his
heart out (“like
there is no tomorrow”) and claims “I’m
going down / 3 cheers for
love,” it gets right to the ecstasy, and
you’re thinking ‘Oh
Yeah!’ Then he lets us know how much real love is directed to
his only object of
desire when the feelings are vocally expressed accordingly with,
“I love it best
/ when we can spend the day / Having nothing closer than / no distance
between us.”
Think about that for a minute -----
It says it all.
Love doesn’t have to be
complicated to work.
Neither does music.
I’m going down.
3 cheers for The Sawtelles.
The
Sawtelles
is available now for: $4.98 +s/h*
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