If you’re
going to listen to music on cassette, there are two simple guidelines, which
when combined, help you in selecting the perfect fit for tape. The first thing you need to determine is
whether or not the music itself is good because, well, no one wants to listen
to something that feels like poison to their ears. Then you must determine whether or not the
music sounds good on cassette, as there are several bands that while good in
their own rights simply might not sound best when produced on cassette.
On “Tropical
Barn”, we are treated to something that sounds like Violent Femmes right off
but has hints of other bands including but not limited to The Hold Steady,
Canterbury Effect and Cloud Nothings. It’s
somewhat folk punk, but also just rocks.
I dare to call it folk punk rock, but I’m not sure even those three
holds can rightfully embrace all of this awesome.
As the
songs go on, especially as the second side begins, we hear a more acoustic side
and even in the vocals a bit of Neil Young comes out. I’m not sure the proper proportions, as to
whether this would be Neil Young covering Violent Femmes or vice versa, but
Neil Young has been one of my longstanding heroes of music and the Violent
Femmes have been one of my favorite bands since the day I first heard them.
I also
realize that throwing out a reference to Violent Femmes makes most people
probably jump right to “Blister in the Sun”, but Pleasure Gap has the Violent
Femmes sound that is anything other than their best known song(s). Which
leads me to remark that Violent Femmes is obviously cassette appropriate music,
and even though Neil Young debuted on vinyl (He is one of my few exceptions
when buying records because I don’t like to buy them a lot) he has a certain
cassette attitude feel if only because I was introduced to him by Pearl Jam who
are total cassette era.
I’d
also like to take a minute right now to say something about song lyrics and
song titles. Bands seem to think that
they can name a song “Song Title One” and then just repeat those words over and
over in the chorus, thus making the obvious connection and not really offering
up too much creativity or originality.
Every other band that has lyrics needs to take notice with Pleasure Gap,
as their first song references “The creep in the corner” on several occasions,
and yet despite what I thought, no, it is not the song title. Just
another one of those little points that needed to be made in terms of bands and
how songs can be written optimally, you know, if that’s your thing.
The
five songs on “Tropical Barn” are great not only because they primarily combine
two of my biggest musical influences, but because they just flat out rock and
have all of the qualities of that which is good without any of the bad. Given their influences, they are very much
appropriate for cassette and do sound optimal on this format if only because
they could be a band out of time. I
wouldn’t peg Pleasure Gap as a grunge band, but they do have a certain outsider
grunge appeal where they’d be from that time frame or maybe a little bit
earlier, but yet would still be embraced by the grunge crowd without sounding
like Pearl Jam, Nirvana or any of the other staples.
Something
like this doesn’t come along often, but when it all clicks like this, when the
first and second tests are passed to create the third and ultimate reason to
listen to cassettes, well, it becomes the best reminder as to why I prefer
cassettes so much and in many ways over the past few years have seemingly
fallen in love with music all over again.
"Tropical Barn" is available from the small independent record label Nomadic Behavior Records (www.nomadicbehaviorrecords.com), who are based out of Maine. The direct link to purchase the tape can be found here:
"Tropical Barn" is available from the small independent record label Nomadic Behavior Records (www.nomadicbehaviorrecords.com), who are based out of Maine. The direct link to purchase the tape can be found here:
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