Gena Rowlands Band
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Gena Rowlands Band

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"Gena Rowlands Band,"

Thirty seconds in, you may think you can see where this album is headed,
with Bob Massey crooning "I finally found what love is/ Love is only in
the movies" like Mark Eitzel after finding out his puppy died over the
saddest guitar chords known to man. But then, you hit the string-fueled
chorus and the twisted comic genius of The Gena Rowlands Band
emerges. "Ahh, Garofalo," he sighs. "Ahh, sweet Janeane/ Surely, you
must be the only one/ Oh, how I crave you/ How I think of you all day/
How I can't wait to rush home to your charms." And with that, he returns
to the opening verse, only now it's a song of redemption and healing. For a
moment, anyhow, until he starts resenting Spielberg and profanely crying
out for Hollywood to burn.

You might expect a band that namechecks "St. John Cassavetes" in song
while taking its name from his wife to be a bunch of dorky film geeks.

And they are. As luck would have it.

In "Kong Meets His Maker (A Parable About Dating)," Massey places The
King of the Jews at the site of another King's death, where a bystander
notes "It was beauty that killed him" and Kong himself tells his Maker,
"The Empire State was not too high to climb for love." And what would
Jesus do? He tells his fallen ape, "If you'd known she is not the only
blonde girl on the planet/ I know you'd still do the same thing that you've
done."

It's tragic, hilarious, brilliant writing, and there's plenty more where that
came from before he signs off crying at his own damn party (if he wants
to) on "The Last Words of Lesley Gore," unbothered by the fact that Gore
is still alive.

"Hell, I was an optimist," he sighs at one point. "Now, I'm a third-rate
lyricist." But as you know, no third-rate lyricist would write that line. And
the music? Melancholy chamber cabaret with crooning vocals and plenty
of atmosphere.

-- Ed Masley - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


"Gena Rowlands Band, "Trailer""

Musically kaleidoscopic, simultaneously lush and choppy, this ambitious experiment succeeds on pretty much every level. (trailer) is a collage of unrelated themes, statements and motifs. When the material is all brought together, it works in much the same way that a fine collection of hors d'oeuvres works at a ritzy party: the broad scope of different tastes and styles allows for a much larger canvas than any single entree could ever offer.

This particular soiree is hosted by DC's Bob Massey, formally of Telegraph Melts. Massey's voice is a constant presence in a world of shifting musical textures. Since his songs lack traditional arrangements, Massey's baritone grounds the disparate musical arrangements, which might otherwise disintegrate in all directions. His voice underlies each song, serving as a reference point for his instrumental exploration.

"Garofalo, C'est moi" is a syncopated, rhythmically staggered work. Structurally, the music seems to wash over the listener in pulses, first surging with strings, then fading with broken arpeggios cast from Massey's guitar, creating a well-layered sonic baklava. The swells grow larger as the song builds, with staccato drum-bursts adding percussive texture in the later measures.

These four tracks, totaling just 16 minutes, demand repeated listening. The more you listen, the more you'll hear. It is bright, non-repetitive, innovative stuff, and the music seems to bloom, opening up and rewarding patient listeners. The band's name, borrowed from John Cassavetes's widow, is the first major clue to the litany of pop references scattered through the lyrics like so many PoMo pearls. Secondary clues can be found in song titles such as "Kong meets His Maker" and "The Last Words of Lesley Gore", and there are undoubtedly tertiary clues in the actual lyrics, but shaking out those references would require the sort of marathon Google session that separates fans from fanatics.

The ubiquitous references are potentially unsettling -- that way lies pretentiousness, particularly where artsy and experimental music is concerned. And the song titles - Lord. The first glance mentally hoisted a Dangerous Surf Conditions flag in my mind. However, Massey pulls it off, and the music is simply a pleasure. If the Gena Rowlands Band can do this with a 16-minute selection of sonic appetizers, their first full length will be a hell of a feast.


-- Jay Forman - Splendid Ezine


"The Gena Rowlands Band, "La Merde et Les Etoiles""

On American Music Club's 1994 album San Francisco, Mark Eitzel declared that "the world is held together by the wind that blows through Gena Rowlands' hair." Rowlands, an accomplished actress, has never been an especially big star, but she's developed something of a cult fanbase for her work in TV drama and films-- particularly those of her late husband, John Cassavetes.

Washington, D.C.'s Bob Massey apparently thinks highly enough of Rowlands to name his latest band after her, and it makes sense I suppose. The former Telegraph Melts member has pointed his latest project's arrows at Hollywood and the way movies cause us to perceive the world and our place in it, and choosing the name of an actress who often worked resolutely outside of Hollywood conventions lines up pretty well with his lyrical swipes at Eisner and Spielberg. And the mood of the album also bears more than a passing affinity for American Music Club's tear-in-beeriest moments, so that Eitzel quote isn't up there for nothing.

La Merde et Les Etoiles (French for "Shit and the Stars", if I read it correctly) is so unified a work of brooding ghost cabaret miserablism you could practically call it a concept album, though the term is a little strong for a record with no overarching narrative. The music could qualify as chamber pop if it had any pretense of wanting to be pop-- instead the violas, vibes, clarinets, and cellos drift along behind Massey's wine-stained baritone, forming a sort of stream-of-consciousness backdrop that drifts in and out of dissonance, occasionally dissolving to a minimalist wisp.

In fact, on a few songs in the middle of the record, the minimalism and lack of solid structure is a bit overbearing. "Pilot for a Situation Tragedy" is cleverly titled, but the arrhythmic electric guitar strumming and barely there accompaniment just die without anywhere to go, and the song dies with them. Much better is closer "Power, Lies, Helena's Lips", one of the few tracks with an actual drum beat. The arrangement is no more solid than anywhere else, though, so the effect is one of chaotic elements being stuffed in a box and escaping again, like a Lucy skit for insomniac depressives.

Elsewhere, Massey appropriates the melody of the national anthem for a break-up meditation and wraps the album up with "The Last Words of Lesley Gore", an excellent song that plays again with barely structured chamber-pop texture, featuring a great breakdown where he slips into a dejected take on Lesley Gore's "It's My Party", morphing it into a startling one-sided conversation about a girl. The moment is perhaps most indicative of the potential of the Gena Rowlands Band, potential that's about three-quarters realized on La Merde et Les Etoiles.


-Joe Tangari, February 08, 2005 - Pitchfork Media, Rating: 7.1


Discography

FULL LENGTHS:

"Flesh and Spirits," Lujo Records, due April 3, 2007
"The Nitrate Hymnal" (w/ Anti-Social Music), Lujo Records, March 2006
"La Merde et Les Etoiles," Lujo Records, February 2005

EPS AND COMPILATIONS:
"Happy Together: A Lujo Records Wedding Compliation," Lujo Records
"Love and Loathing," Lujo Records
"Quality, Quantity, and Luxury," Lujo Records
"Pet Series 3," Sally Forth Records
"Trailer," Autoclave Records

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Bio

THE GENA ROWLANDS BAND...

... plays songs about b-movie starlets, x-movie starlets, blonde strangers, barstool wisdom, bad parties, and Kong's words with Jesus in the aftermath of a rough first date. “It's tragic, hilarious, brilliant writing,” according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

'Flesh and Spirits' is The Gena Rowlands Band’s third full-length recording for Lujo Records. It’s is the band’s most focused, cohesive, and catchy work yet.

To create the best album of his career, GRB mastermind Bob Massey assembled a dream team of Washington, DC’s most acclaimed musicians:

- Jason Caddell and Eric Axelson (formerly of The Dismemberment Plan) on guitar and bass.
- Jean Cook (who also plays with Beauty Pill, Ida, and Jon Langford) on violin.
- David Durst (who's played with Maritime and Fast Eddie) on keyboard.
- and Vin Novara (formerly of CrownHateRuin, Oswego and Canyon) on drums.

The result is eleven instantly memorable songs built on Massey’s trademark lyrical formula that combines dry wit, a grappling with darkness, and glimmers of love and light. If the band’s debut (La Merde et Les Etoiles) was the soundtrack for a night of heartache, Flesh and Spirits is the jolt to get you out of bed in the morning.

Flesh and Spirits was recorded and produced by Chad Clark of Beauty Pill (Dischord) and TJ Lipple of Aloha (Polyvinyl) of Silver Sonya, in Washington DC’s legendary Inner Ear studios.

The GRB has toured with Andrew Bird, Enon, The Dismemberment Plan and others. In March 2007 the band will make their third appearance at SXSW in Austin, TX, as part of a tour of the southwestern U.S. A tour of the entire U.S. will follow in May 2007.

The Gena Rowlands Band are graduates of the Washington D.C post-punk community. But what you hear is utterly unexpected. Strings stolen from a b&w movie score or New York's experimental scene. The skitter of jazz brushes. A voice that draws more power from a whisper, a wry lyric, or a soulful falsetto than a scream.