March marked the second-year
anniversary of singer-songwriter Phil
Ajjarapu's near-death motorcycle accident,
which served as a wake-up call for the gifted musician to record his first solo album,
the 11-track marvel Sing Along Until You
Feel Better. Before the accident, the
Libertyville native played bass in multiple
Chicago bands (most notably Liquid Soul)
before relocating to Austin, Texas, to teach
high school music and gig in bands there.
The album that resulted is a hall-of-famer
as far as silver linings go: financed by
Kickstarter and produced by Ken
Stringfellow (R.E.M. and the Posies) the
songs sound like they are from the late
1960s – not for nostalgic reasons, but for
top-shelf rock songwriting reasons. Nearly
30 Austin musicians helped Phil (who
plays guitar, including pedal steel, piano
and sings) record his compositions of love,
love lost and the self-examination that
results. The title track is an upbeat song
that belies its melancholy mood; "Don't
Worry" is a hopeful song about "leaving
Ohio and moving back to Chicago" to chase
a girl; "Every Day" is a heart-breaker about
Ronstadt would be proud. Even when the
rusticity is pegged up on the tale of oddball
"Sadie," the effect is more Crate & Barrel
than actual crates and barrels. 4000 Weeks
allegedly refers to the average amount of
life a human has; Elliot plans to spend the
remainder of hers in as much comfort as
possible. (www.reverbnation.com/eugeniaelliot)
-- Steve Forstneger
Singer-songwriter
Jenny
Franck
unleashes a lot of raw emotions about troubled relationships on her full-length debut,
Beautiful Lies. Working with bassist Mike
Orr, drummer-guitarist-keyboards player
Jaben Perrell, and a few guest musicians,
she's at her most powerful on energetic,
melodic songs like "I See You" and
"Colorscreen." "I look inside myself/I'm
full of nothing well," Franck sings on
"Disease," a guitar-driven song with
intriguing tempo shifts. A few of the slower songs have generic arrangements, but
Franck's razor sharp observations keep
them interesting. (www.jennyfranck.com)
– Terrence Flamm
Jenny Franck
the urge to call an old love, and perhaps the
most surprising – and cynical track – is
"Nothing Is Connected," a rollicking
acoustic-guitar track. (Philajjarapu.bandcamp.com)
– Jason Scales
Judging by its four-song EP,
Dropmouth knows nu-metal, but it doesn't
know Dropmouth. The set kicks off with a
guttural bark, but most of the outing is
spent nailing the genre's stylistic points
and avoiding the argument for its own
existence – other than being for the sake of
more nu-metal. The band has an unwavering skill for grooves and rhythms, but the
edges get shorn so that there are no peaks
and valleys, no character in the presentation. In a live setting, Dropmouth might be
a whole other animal. But you wouldn't
know
from
this.
(www.
facebook.com/Dropmouth)
-- Steve Forstneger
At first listen, the innocent, lovelorn
lyrics on Eugenia Elliot's 4000 Weeks seem
at odds with the professional, nuanced
playing of not just Elliot's band but also her
own voice. But then it becomes clear that
the breezy metaphors and simple ideas are
meant to jive with those performances.
This is cushiony folk pop of which Linda
14 illinoisentertainer.com april 2014
Yankee is a deceptively nondescript
name for a duo that yearns to crack people
up with lyrics about condom use and mass
murder. Humor is subjective, but there's no
doubt that Josh V. and Caleb P. know how
to craft catchy arrangements and airtight
harmonies. After the throw-away noise of
"Hey-Na-Na," Yankee connects with the
rapid-fire rhymes of "Must Be." "Buddy," an
indie rock lament about a party