A band of three from Brisbane, Australia, singer / guitarist Ronnie Scott, organist Tim Fairless and cellist / violist Shannon Luk create an eccentric and palpable sound with their "Danger Boy" single; multilayered and catchy, the unison of the three, headed by Ronnie Scott's vocals result in a highly addictive melody of many plateaus and very little room for rest.
This song starts out with just an acoustic and Ronnie's full, out-front vocals, telling a story about a boy (dangerous, perhaps?) that you're just starting to get into, then the background organ and violin kick in and the rock begins. Things get crazy as the song keeps building and building, crossing genres and lines with orchestral distortion and radio box vox going in a thousand different crazy directions.
While I was listening to "Danger Boy", there was only one thing I could think. Wow. "Danger Boy" provides the ears with a melody of a Guitar, Organ, and Violin that is both organically and electronically perfected. Thanks to these guys, I'd really love to know what this "Southern Gothic" movement is all about (which, by the way, is how they describe themselves). Is there a tee-shirt I can buy somewhere? Maybe you've got to live in Australia to really get a feel for this brain twisting genre of sound.
All good things must come to an end, eventually, right? Even though there are very few downsides for the song "Danger Boy", I did feel that it could become a little busy at times. Especially when the background vocal tracks, Shannon's strings, Tim's hammond, and lead vocals are all cacaphony-ing around in the mix, I began to feel a little lost at certain points. There were also some instances where the singing -- while I did enjoy Ronnie's stylistic wavering -- would wobble in and out; almost like he was nervous. This perhaps sounds unintended at certain points.
The unique instrumentation and approach of this band is not seen in a lot of bands today, and brings a new feeling to their music that comes through in this song. I feel they enjoy the music they're playing and are able to write fantastic songs such as this one; still making it appeal to a wide range of listeners.
Washington state's Tj Clark is a one-man band. Literally. From just one listen to his demo single, "Forever Be My Girl", you can tell that this guy is very, very serious about becoming a major pop star idol. Tj has been singing all of his life; only recently performing out on occassion and realizing that now is the time to make dreams happen. Record labels beware: Tj is willing do anything (not porn related) to make it in the industry. Permorming mainly in the Federal Way area in Washington, Tj has two singles available on his page at NewMusicLabel.Com -- including a rather spicy rendition of Enrique Iglesias' "Hero".
This song starts out nice and strong with a single acoustic guitar, bass, and an extremely crisp drum track leading us through a wistful verse and bridge and finally crashing into a catchy pop chorus. The song itself is rather short, weighing in at only one chorus and much, much less than three minutes. Tj's vocals are probably on the same level as many of the other pop group lead singers -- with a little more training and practice, I could see Tj surely making his way in the mainstream pop-idol world. He'll be on the inside door of lockers of young girls everywhere any day now; right beside the hairspray and the personalized pencils.
Man, can this boy program some drums. Runs, fills, backbeat -- for a guy with a guitar, this boy wonder can do it all when it comes to proggie drums. In fact, the drums are probably the strongest part of the song --
-- as well as the most distracting. It's almost like they didn't really fit. Imagine a laid-back acoustic guitar track, uncompressed but recorded moderately well, and then this ... huge ... drum track overlaying the entire song. Imagine Animal from Jim Hensen's "Muppet Show" sitting in with the Indigo Girls. But man, can this boy program some drums.
Interested in learning more about Tj Clark? You can just go over to his profile at NewMusicLabel.Com and learn more. Maybe even drop a listen to his cover of "Hero" there on his main page. New Music Label is actually kind of an interesting site ... or sight ... there are lots of folks there persuing a career in the pop world, and you can feel free to peruse them all. In fact, I see everything from Nigeria singer REGALYKE's "Loose it Baby" (as well as his follow up demo single, "Loose it Mammi") to Green Bay area's Athena singing her original "Simply In Love". Whatever you do, you've got to go see this yourself. As for Tj, check out his page at New Music Label by going directly to: http://newmusiclabel.com/user_profile.asp?user_id=489. And ... uhm ... be sure to check out the sights and sounds along the way, eh
So I listened to a few songs by these guys to decide which one to review, and I believe "Dear Girl" describes The Sig Figs to the fullest. If you give a short look at the title you'll probably already notice where this is heading. Yes, you're right, teen pop rock or pop/punk the way they like to call it these days. But let us focus on the band and the songs.
The Sig Figs consists of four boys calling themselves, in order of appearance: Turbo: Lead Guitar and vocals, Flash: Bass Guitar and vocals, 3000: Rhythm Guitar and vocals and Metro: Drums. The nick names these four cats have taken on could lead us to believe that the Sig Figs are somewhat young and more accepting of the ... brighter side of life. Such are the songs they produce - youthful, light and amusing. These "defenders of power-pop" could easily find a place in today's pop punk market. If you're looking for the band's inspiration, you shouldn't have to look much further than Blink 182 or Green Day.
"Dear Girl" starts off with a very nice lo-fi intro indeed; lead vocalist Turbo croons delightfully with a chorus of boy-singers in a nostalgic throwback to 50's era rock, and it kicks in from there. The song itself is about something that a lot of the teenage boys have to face once in a while, namely partings with their girlfriends. In this song, the guys are giving their listeners hope that somewhere out there is a soulmate for everybody. A positive message indeed, which could easily end up helping and bringing a poor boy back on his feet in a situation like this.
Turbo's vocals are rather well performed for a young singer. Also, 3000's rhythm guitar has also some nice ideas here and there, and production-wise, the intro was creative, well thought out, and performed.
I think that there are a couple passages in the song that should have been thought out and maybe practiced a little more. The back ups could use some help, because they sound a little rough, or maybe just a little too low in the mix. The overall sound of the song is decent, but I think the compression has made it harder to fully review. A little disappointing, for me at least, is also the topic these fellows choose to focus on in their lyrics, but that could be just me not fully understanding teenagers these days.
For such a young band that has only recently performed in front of an audience for the very first time, I think The Sig Figs are doing quite well. The foundations are there, and as you see just by surfing through their site, they're taking their band rather seriously; currently working on a debut CD. If you're interested you should see what these guys are up to on: thesigfigs.8m.com.
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July 09, 2008, 12:39:32 AM
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