[$7 // Edition of 25 // http://hologramskiesrecords.com/album/t-wave]
While I do spend time listening to the radio, there is that in between of music, what I like to think of as the college radio crowd (You know the bands) that I still somehow just don't listen to for whatever reason. Perhaps it's because I've been burned too many times by people telling me how great bands are and my just blank expressions of boredom when I actually find time to listen to them. I don't know exactly what it is, but there are some good bands in that middle mix that I should spend more time listening to than I do. One of the advantages of not hearing all of that though is that a band then like Travelling Wave can come seemingly out of nowhere and just blow you away.
Travelling Wave is the essence of rock n roll with that extra addition of something that I might say is shoegaze but that term just seems so overused these days that I don't want to say it. Moments of Silversun Pickups mix with guitar note driven choruses that can also channel the band Placebo. It's at a moderate tempo with echoing vocals and for some reason it reminds me of something from the "Batman and Robin" soundtrack (Or maybe it was "Batman Forever", I don't know, whichever one had that Seal song on it and I want to say a U2 song as well)
Through moments of pure psychedelia this does have fuzz and takes on that trippy sort of Beatles sound just as well. Even if they are only using guitars at one point on Side B it does sound as if there are organs coming through in that almost garage rock way. Through a ballad with western undertones ring distortion and melodies. Any website reviewing music with reverb will become an instant fan of this I feel and that is not a bad thing at all.
When I was still just a kid I was out there interviewing bands. I had credentials. So I went to this one show at the Tune Inn in New Haven (anyone remember that place?) and I saw The Damn Personals open up for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. I actually wanted to interview The Damn Personals at that show but when I asked them about it they disappeared into the bar cage and never came back despite saying they would (rocknroll!)
Several years back, I saw BRMC open up for Stone Temple Pilots in Houston and I wasn't impressed by them then but back at that club show with The Damn Personals there was just something about them. There was an arena feel even though they were in a club, just echoing for all the world to hear as they played through the smoke and haze. In a sense, I felt as if their presence was larger than life, to steal a title from a Bill Murray movie. And I wasn't really buying into BRMC back then like others were, but Travelling Wave has all of that show with all of the talent in the world to back it up.
As I started this review saying, I don't listen to a lot of that in between music and mostly stick with the radio or bands most people have never quite heard of before. So if you asked me who the greatest living rock band was right now, I'd struggle for an answer and probably end on Pearl Jam just because they're still going and have made some of the most memorable music to date for me. But now... Now if someone asks me who the greatest living rock and roll band is, that one you just have to see play live, I'm going to have to go with Travelling Wave.
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