Music
Press
“one of the best and most ambitious pop bands in America.” (Salon.com) - Salon.com
‘the power-pop album of the year” (Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune -- referring to The Subversive Sounds of Love) - Chicago Tribune
Jim DeRogatis, 04/27/07
The local power-pop band Frisbie was building a real head of steam when it released its effervescent album "The Subversive Sounds of Love" in July 2000, garnering college radio play, rave reviews and impressive shows opening for Wilco, Cheap Trick, Matthew Sweet and Big Star, all major influences. Like many indie-rockers, however, the musicians found it difficult to tour for months on end while holding down the day jobs necessary to pay the rent. And there were other, more unique problems, too.
"In a nutshell it goes like this," Liam Davis told Chicagoist.com. "Band releases album. Album is favorably received. Band tours to support album. Drummer suffers breakdown and quits band. Drummer rejoins band. Drummer re-quits band. Band struggles to regain momentum lost in the tangled web of personal drama and mayhem."
Now, Davis and fellow bandleader, guitarist and vocalist Steve Frisbie finally have a solid new lineup, and they're back with a strong new recording that is the logical successor to their stellar debut. (The low-key release of "period." in 2003, a collection of songs by original drummer Zack Kantor, was really more of a detour and a coda.) So far, the reconfigured quartet has no solid plans for releasing the aptly titled "New Debut," but its 10 songs are certain to find a deserving home, reprising the jangling guitars and heartbreakingly beautiful harmonies that marked Frisbie Phase I, while adding a much heavier rhythmic undertow and adventurous arrangements that sometimes evoke the more complicated song structures of progressive rock.
Sample the joyful single "Yes Impossible" for yourself at www.myspace.com/frisbiemusic, and watch www.digfrisbie.com, for upcoming gigs.
- Chicago Sun-Times
Frisbie draws from the well of established power-pop, with the balls-out power chords, tumbling drums and angelic harmonizing of bands like Cheap Trick and the Posies (or even the Who, to which the stuttering “Baba O’Riley” keyboard riff of album centerpiece “SFB” generously nods). Davis and Frisbie are master architects of the building blocks of power-pop—broken hearts and bitterness—but there is also elation here, with vocals that recall a Genesis-era Phil Collins or Semisonic’s Dan Wilson: unself-conscious preening at its best.—Matthew Lurie - Time Out Chicago
The optimistically titled "New Debut" (Appendix) finds the band back in top form, with innocent harmonies, intricately arranged tunes and sky-scraping choruses enfolding vulnerable lyricism. - Chicago Tribune
"tight harmonies, thick guitar foundations and clever lyrics...there's not a wasted note on this impressive return, one of the strongest of 2007." - Paul Borelli - KOOP 91.7 FM, Austin
Discography
The Subversive Sounds of Love (Hear Diagonally)
New Debut (Appendix Records)
Photos
Bio
Frisbie’s debut, The Subversive Sounds of Love, was hailed as ‘the power-pop album of the year.” (Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune) A series of personal trials delayed a follow-up, but now the band has completed New Debut, a 40-minute burst of imaginative and affecting songs. While SSOL was rooted in the pop of the 60’s, New Debut reveals a love for the guitar rock of the 70’s. So much happens in these three-minute tunes as producer Matt Thompson breaks out the harmonic density of every song. Frisbie still boasts two of the finest singers anywhere, yet the emotions of their soaring vocals are more deeply revealed in the unexpected rhythms and timbres of the music. In short, New Debut will kick you in the head and the pants.
Frisbie is one of Chicago’s most popular acts, selling out venues on their own and opening for the likes of Wilco, Matthew Sweet, Cheap Trick and Big Star. With New Debut, Frisbie makes good on it's promise as “one of the best and most ambitious pop bands in America.” (Salon.com)
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