PURE M Magazine
Saints
Podracer: Parking Cars and ‘Ghost Story’
Pumping Gas
62
The Grazing
Review by Bláithín Duggan
R
aging, Rolling, Rocking, Raiding, and
Resonating. Dundalk trio Podracer released a
twelve track Irish Punk Rock album in
September 2012 entitled ‘Parking Cars and Pumping
Gas’. This tightly bound album is an impressive
combination of punk, rock, and alternative music.
‘Runes’ opens the album in a strong and assertive
manner with some impressive lead guitar techniques
by Alan Anderson demonstrating acute manual
dexterity, and similarly with the sounds produced by
Damien Carroll on Bass.
Podracer have managed to encapsulate the essence
of late 80s and early 90s Punk in the striking sounds
within this album. This is strong, yet delicate music
that navigates its way through a plethora of docile and
dominant tones, and chord progressions, with poetic
and thought provoking lyrics. Nonetheless, this isn’t
poetry, and the vocals are violently executed, yet
contrasted with passages of gentle whispers. Such as
track 2 ‘Vulpes’ where the vocals are used in a playful
manner. Furthermore, intersections of vocal samples in
one or two of these tracks, demonstrates this groups
modern and new take on Punk Rock music. The
opening of ‘Californian Boys’ takes a cynical approach
to the early 60s Pop Sounds. Another clear and concise
guitar riff opens this song in a playful 60s Pop Sound
which then transcends into the signature sound created
by Podracer. The drummer Colin Berrill carries the
rhythmic formations of the album, and these rhythmic
patterns are diverse, and deserve credit as they are
played consistently throughout the album to create the
signature Rock rhythm of ‘Parking Cars and Pumping
Gas’.
Podracer have received numerous airplay and not
surprisingly this album is no exception. This album is
creative and demonstrates their talent as musicians, and
these guys are definitely worth an eye, regardless of
your preferred genre, the execution of such acute
musical technique and speedy vocal projections are
definitely worth merit.
Review by Lauren O'Halleron
The Grazing Saints is an English
“swamp
rock,
doom-pop,
psychedelic-soul shuffle” band based
in Norfolk. The members include: Joe
Quinn on guitar and vocals, Paul
Taylor on bass, and Michele Amato on
drums. The band started in 2012 and
place themselves in several music
genre categories such as rock n’ roll,
psychedelic soul, fuzz blues and doom
pop.
‘Ghost Story’ is the latest single
released from the band’s upcoming
album ‘Selene’, which launches on
January 9th, 2015. The entire album
was recorded live in Thurton Church
in July, 2014, keeping with the theme
of being “saints”, perhaps? From the
get-go, it is obvious that ‘Ghost Story’
was not recorded in a studio. The
vocals and the instruments provide an
echo throughout the track, something
which works well only with the latter.
While Quinn offers the listener good,
strong vocals, they are sometimes
impeded by the static when raised to
a high volume, something which
would have been avoided if the album
had been recorded in a studio. Maybe
this was the band’s intention, but I
would not recommend listening to this
song with headphones.
The song itself is interesting, but
again, the lyrics are difficult to
decipher through the static. It is a
mellow tune, with a strong musical
interval near the end, taking full
advantage of the church ambience. It
is a good song, but it could make a
bigger impact if it was given the
studio treatment. Having said that,
another sample of ‘Selene’ is ‘Bright
Beacon’, a slower song, which better
allows Quinn’s vocals to be heard and
deciphered, with little to no static
interference. Live albums should
generally be released when the fans
have heard the studio versions and
don’t need to put effort into hearing
the lyrics through static. It is a risk,
and one can only hope that it pays off.