Cassette Review: Eric Peter Schwartz "Boney Finger In The Sweet Spot" (ZyNg tapes)

[£5.50 // Edition of 40 // http://music.zyngtapes.co.uk/album/boney-finger-in-the-sweet-spot-zyng014]

Much of the musical complexity of Eric Peter Schwartz can be found on his first song, "Ghosts of Manhattan", which can span anything from Lou Reed in a cool and smooth way to the beats of Primitive Radio Gods.    It seems only a fitting way to open this cassette though because it's the type of song which could serve as an entire album and it really makes me want to hear more from Eric Peter Schwartz even when I am only a few notes into it.

What follows is a journey which I believe could be taken on a train.   I wouldn't exactly use the word "hobo", but there is this sort of vibe to these songs of someone riding the rails and, yes, at one point he does sing about the trains but I felt it long before that.     The songs just have this soul of the earth type of quality about them that makes you truly feel like Eric Peter Schwartz has been places and seen things.  I guess this could be done out of a van or other touring vehicle of choice but my mind just leads me to hopping onto that moving train.

Some Neil Young comes out as does Tom Petty in these songs which makes me think of Americana as being a category.    But then I also hear the spoken words and dusty guitars on the titular track, which I believe to be about death, and then as we reach the end of Side A "Sleeping With My Watch On" has this alt-country sound to it which reminds me of the band Stroke 9.   It's kind of funny how Stroke 9 hasn't stood the test of time so most kids these days wouldn't know about the "Little Black Backpack" song let alone how great the rest of that album was.  (Could the Jay and Silent Bob movie be their hope?)

A song in which the title is sung of "White Gypsum & John Wayne's Ghost" only furthers my belief of what this is all about but then we find the song "Holes In His Kiss", which is drum machine bedroom pop and for the first time the cassette takes me out of the element of someone traveling across this great land and brings me into a much smaller place but I don't mind because it's a solid song nonetheless.

This cassette is really what I like to call great road music.  If you're on the highway and need a soundtrack to your adventure then this could be it.   I would put this cassette in the tape deck and listen to it as you drive across the entire United States, or any country really.   But then there is also that sense of moving which comes with the songs and so if you are currently not traveling but rather sitting inside on your couch or whatever this music can take you to another place and sometimes that is just as important.