Robert Roth
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Robert Roth

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The best kept secret in music

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"Robert Roth Someone, Somewhere..."

Dec 2004
****
Underrated Seattle singer's trippy solo debut.Though he's best still known for his role in Truly's 1995 album Fast Stories...From Kid Coma, Robert Roth is way beyond grunge. This solo debut is crammed with classy naked city observations like the magical opener "Vicki and Jacky" and the epic "Walk All Over Downtown Life". With a musical talent to match his ear for detail, Roth slips melltron, loops and Farfisa in between some richly arranged songwriting that echoes Pink Floyd and Jorma Kaukonen. If Bob's voice is eerily reminiscent of Syd Barrett, the notes and nuances are highly original.
-Max Bell
- UNCUT


"Robert Roth Someone, Somewhere..."

Robert Roth (ex-Truly) reintroduces himself to the world with an amazingly strong and cohesive solo album. Dark and moody rock and roll that pulses with an almost psychedelic sexuality. The shadows move deep along sonic gutters and are kicked up in your face as this band drives a slick black car
down the streets of your subconscious. The music is deep and lush, but still holds a razorblade of ache along the edge of the guitars, the bass and drums beat like your nightmare pulse, the keyboards fill and flow under it all, and Robert’s vocals seduce with a strange passionate wisdom.
- Marcel Feldmar
- THE BIG TAKEOVER


"Robert Roth Someone, Somewhere..."

July/August 2004
Former Truly sparkplug Robert Roth's solo debut, Someone, Somewhere, is an exquisite synthesis of his broad experience. A legend in the seminal Seattle grunge scene (he was nearly tapped as Nirvana's second guitarist), Roth guided Truly through indie greatness and an uncompromising major label stint, collaborated with poet/rocker Jim Carroll and spruced up Built to Spill's Perfect From Now On with atmospheric mellotron. For his first solo effort, Roth built his own studio and oversaw every aspect of Someone, Somewhere over the past three and a half years, from writing to performing to production. The greatest testament to Roth's ability in this regard is that Someone, Somewhere never once sounds like a cloistered one-man project. Roth presents slabs of squealing glam ("Streetplay '99"), Afghan Whigs-like, soul-infused lounge rock ("Blackout City Serenade"), Adrian Belew-revisits-Beatlemania pop psychedelia ("Under the Ever-Watchful Eye) and Wayne Kramer-tinged jazz punk (the slinky instrumental of "Halliburton Blues") with equal aplomb, peppering his songs with singular arrangements and scathing and insightful political and cultural observations. Robert Roth demands a listener's attention now and a critic's attention toward the end of the year.
--Brian Baker
- AMPLIFIER


"Rules Are For Fools"

Issue 4.1
Someone, Somewhere (Pattern 25), the solo debut from Robert Roth, is a truly timeless creation. Roth's work overwhelms listeners one moment, then pacifies them in starkly bare passages seconds later. It echoes nearly every great blast of sound from the past 50 years, not in order of its chords, but in its ability to shake listeners from complacency.

"I'm trying to make universal music that's not derivative," says the former leader of Truly. "I'm not just trying to get a piece of the action. I'm trying to offer something that maybe people can't get from anywhere else."

Someone, Somewhere was born in virtual isolation, with Roth playing all the instruments, then producing, engineering and mastering the entire album. The recording process, according to Roth, was essential to the integrity of the album. "It's purer because you're not being drawn outside yourself by other people's opinions," he says. "I've really just been trying to delve into myself for the past year, because you really don't get a lot of opportunities in life to hole up and do that."

Roth's introspection touches upon the tremendous changes that have seized the past year. "I see people still trying to grab onto lifestyles that have been validated by past cultural trends," he says. "It feels like a time where people want to go back to something they know works. It's a fear of the future." Someone, Somewhere stands as a defiant challenge to this fear. "I think artists should be exploring the unconscious and the possible future. I'm not talking about being avant-garde or using new technology with each record. I'm just talking about ideas -- whether you're playing basic guitar rock or you're a DJ or whatever."

In a time filled with discussion of political freedom, Someone, Somewhere celebrates absolute, personal musical freedom. "To me, punk rock is supposed to be 'anything goes,'" says Roth. "It's not supposed to be a set of rules."
-- Adam Lauridsen
- DEVIL IN THE WOODS


"Robert Roth Someone, Somewhere..."

This is quite a pleasing gem of music from a gifted artist. Spending three years carefully crafting his first solo release, Someone, Somewhere is an exceptional example of Robert Roth’s creative wit and musical prowess. Full of fierce, compassionate songwriting, Roth pushes the envelope with his ability to capture the raw essence of human emotion in song. Filled with high doses of eclectic artistic expression, each song acts with a great deal of immediacy. Roth genuinely paints sonic atmospheres and melodic landscapes with fervor and originality, providing a sharp look into his promising future as a solo artist from Seattle. Roth will always be praised with his influence as a figure during the period of Seattle’s grunge scene, as well as his powerful presence as lead singer in the band Truly. You can still hear the rich retro moods in this record that provided Truly’s fame and following. A captivating and enlightening work, Someone, Somewhere is cram-packed full of musical information, such that each spin offers more fresh musical surprises. “Lightening and Thunder” and “Relive These X” are potent with dazzling composition. The title track is laced with melodic textures and colors, found over and over again with great intensity, just like the mysterious and hauntingly beautiful “Halliburton Blues.” This record marks Roth’s focus and extreme dedication into creating such a rich and riveting listening experience. One can’t help but feel the emotional release of sound, vibrant with mellotron-soaked atmospherics, haunting guitars, and warped orchestral passages. Dazzling with strings, sythns, horns, percussion pulses, this wall of sound seems to stop time itself and carry you into the heart of this epic. With experimentation at the extreme, Roth pays attention to the most minute of details to give us such a gripping, emotionally resonating release. - Shawn M. Haney - COPPERPRESS


"Robert Roth Someone, Somewhere..."

Robert Roth (Truly, Built to Spill, Jim Carroll) is an important unsung hero to the modern underground music scene. On Roth's release SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE..., we are given a true American album. I don't mean the patriotic propaganda of other post-9/11 albums, but American in the sense that Roth has weaved one of the best lyrically-driven albums. Roth details his experiences in the past three years with the hard-rocking, grunge, 9/11-influenced "Relive These X" and the subtly political "Blackout City Serenade". Clocking in at 70+ minutes, the album has a full, rich texture very reminiscent of the recording quality of fuzzed-out '60s-'70s psyche rockers, like in the song "Vicki and Jacky", while others contain the surreal, discombobulation of The Beatles. This is indeed a historical account, a prophetic warning, and a vision for the modern young American—or, as Roth puts it in "Streetplay '99": "Street scene / Final act / The last soliloquy of the last century."
-Norberto Gomez, Jr.
- SKRATCH MAGAZINE


"Robert Roth Someone, Somewhere..."

4/29/04
If you believe the old line that it's not who you are but whom you know, then Robert Roth should rank just a few notches below Jesus on Friendster. The native Seattleite's former band, Truly, featured ex-members of grungedaddies Soundgarden and Screaming Trees. He has written and toured with celebrated drug-poet Jim Carroll and played mellotron for Built to Spill (that's him tickling the ivories on Perfect From Now On). Oh, and he was almost the second guitarist in a certain Pacific Northwest power trio that broke big in '91 and met a somewhat sticky end three years later. Heard of them?

If Roth was waiting for the perfect moment to drop Someone, Somewhere..., his three-years-in-the-making solo debut, he couldn't have picked a better time than right now. It's a dense, ambitious work, imagining what could have happened had the children of the Northwest Rock Explosion been allowed to grow up instead of killing themselves with drugs, bad records and major-label deals. Roth plays, writes, arranges and produces almost every note of Someone's 15 sprawling tracks, piling on loads of strings, horns and sonic flourishes like indie's answer to Tom Scholz. In the wrong hands, it would have sounded bloated and overindulgent, but here, nothing succeeds like excess.

Perhaps stricken with creative ADD, Roth shifts between rock flavors with fluidity and ease. There's a raffish peacock saunter for an opener -- the trashy inner-city guitar raunch and plinking keys of "Vicki and Jacky" -- that leads to off-kilter piano pop, murky post-punk, lo-fi glam and poetic protest rock. Roth tries on a number of stylistic hats, but he really hits top gear when he tries on Bowie's Aladdin Sane mullet for "Lightning & Thunder". It's hard to match Mr. Earthling for pathos and melodrama when he's in the mood, but Roth, to his credit, is more than game to try.

Like many Class of '91 alums, Robert Roth kept going after Seattle's boom years turned bust. His inventive, kitchen-sink productions deserve a wider audience. They're tighter and more cohesive than they seem, saturated with hidden melodies pulled from rock's furthest-flung corners. This is DIY that dreams big.


-- Steve English
- SPLENDID


"Someone, Somewhere... Robert Roth"

Fate can be strange. Robert Roth almost became Nirvana’s second guitarist. He helmed Seattle’s Truly with members of Screaming Trees and Soundgarden. He played alongside everyone from the super-literate Jim Carroll to the super-cool Built To Spill. Somehow, though, there are few, even in his Pacific Northwest stomping grounds, who could even recognize his name.


Roth makes his first move to capture some of the acclaim that’s moved along a parallel trajectory to his life on Someone, Somewhere … his first solo effort. Clocking in at more than an hour, the album, which is the product of three years’ work, ought to elevate Roth out of the basements of underground semi-fame to a name mentioned by rock fans of all stripes.


Although Someone, Somewhere … struggles because of its immense scope, anyone with the patience and perspective to make sense of Roth’s work will be richly rewarded. Although long known as a footnote to the grunge explosion of the last decade, Roth pursues a much more varied and textured sound than his previous band ever touched. Roth touches on a slinky sound that recalls everything from the dirty rock of the early ’70s to today’s new-rock revivalists in “The Poison Arrow,” with its slinky slide guitars and nocturnal atmosphere. “Blackout City Serenade,” however, places Roth among the ranks of whip-smart pop songwriters, as keyboards and guitars roam in and out of an arrangement with the sweet melodies to suggest Brian Wilson, but the dirty production values and take-no-crap guitar tones that hint at Roth’s days as a grunge scenester. The rest of the album follows a similar track, as Roth picks and chooses bits of everything from pop and rock history and presses his own identity onto them.


That usually works out for the better, although Roth’s use extra instrumentation and studio layering sometimes makes Someone Somewhere .. a tad too dense for its own good. Although the swirls of brass and touches of backing vocals add a dimension to this album that brings it closer to the realized, conceptual works of pop masters than pure rock, all too frequently, Roth’s arrangements don’t fully allow for their inclusion. Listeners will hear them just fine, but they’re either so squashed in the mix or too subservient to guitar and keyboard tracks to truly blossom.


Despite that penchant for too-thick songwriting, Roth still shows that he’s a songwriter who deserves respect. Someone, Somewhere … might not be a juicy slice of pop perfection, but it’s close enough to hold us over until the next Pet Sounds is cut.


- Will Stanford - AVERSION


Discography

Robert Roth solo/"Someone, Somewhere..." 2004 LP
with Jim Carroll/"Runaway EP"2000 EP
with Truly/"Twilight Curtains" 2000 LP
"Feeling You Up" 1998 LP
"Fast Stories from Kid Coma" 1995 LP
"Blue Flame Ford"1995 10 inch EP
"Leslie's Coughing Up Blood" 1993 EP
"Heart and Lungs" 1991 EP

Photos

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Bio

Former Truly (Sub Pop, Capitol) frontman Robert Roth’s solo debut, "Someone, Somewhere", is an uncompromising statement of artistic dedication. Roth’s soulful drawl and unshakeable soaring melodies weave together washes of haunted guitars, mellotron-soaked soundscapes, and warped orchestral passages into an ageless epic that differentiates itself from imitations. A recent feature in Devil in the Woods Magazine hailed Someone, Somewhere as a “truly timeless creation,” and said “Roth’s work overwhelms listeners one moment, then pacifies them in starkly bare passages seconds later. It echoes nearly every great blast of sound from the past 50 years, not in the order of its chords, but in its ability to shake listeners from their complacency.”
While the DIY ethic may have been gutted by empty sloganeering, Roth still keeps the faith. The more people stacked between the ether of an artist’s inspiration and the shiny record sitting in front of you, the more meaning you lose in translation. For Someone, Somewhere, Roth made sure the path from concept to execution was as short as possible. Pattern 25 Records gave him the time, space, and trust to work on his own terms. Over the course of three years, Roth lived every element of the album’s creation – put together his own studio, wrote every note and lyric, played nearly every instrument and pushed each button or dial along the way.
The result of this unadulterated expression hits like a tall shot of something pure and strong. Roth’s celestial guitars slide along in woozy bliss, then viscerally rip open a moment later. Analog synths, mellotron, strings, and horns flood even the darkest moments with warmth and light. Time seems to come unhinged as the album’s seventy plus minutes flash by but songs patiently linger on incidental details, lovingly laid under a wall of sound. Someone, Somewhere pulses with the unmistakable electricity of nonconformity and self-taught mastery that has always driven rock and roll. The limits of sound and recording technology are pushed and prodded because no one was around to scare Roth away from daring them.
Equal parts Brian Wilson detail, Flaming Lips experimentation, Spiritualized bombast, and Tom Verlaine geometry, Roth expands upon the sonic frontiers he previously claimed as the singer-guitarist-composer-producer of Seattle’s Truly. After two EPs on Sub Pop, Truly (featuring Screaming Trees’ alum Mark Pickerel and founding Soundgarden member Hiro Yamamoto) inked a mid 90s deal with Capitol Records. Truly’s debut, Fast Stories...From Kid Coma, was widely hailed as one of 1995’s finest releases. Despite the absence of a single, MTV Online put it in its top twenty albums of the year. Kerrang Magazine loved it so much they reviewed it twice, giving it the max five stars both times. Seattle’s legendary music rag, the Rocket, looked back at the end of the 90s and called it the scene’s Pet Sounds. Off the momentum of their debut, Truly took its combustible and relentless live show international. When Roth returned home, he contributed mellotron to Built to Spill’s masterwork Perfect from Now On, wrote songs with author/musician Jim Carroll (Basketball Diaries) for Pools of Mercury and the Runaway E.P., and played beside Carroll in a string of sold out live dates. Truly closed the 90s with a newfound pop fetish on Feeling You Up and left the stage for good with Twilight Curtains, an outtakes collection.
On his own for the first time, Roth’s fierce yet elegant songwriting takes center stage. Someone, Somewhere plays like a movie, putting you on a first-name basis with characters like “Vicki and Jacky” as they move between urban decay and gentrification (“Walk All Over Downtown Life”), stumbling into the violence and chaos of Seattle’s millennium-closing WTO riots (“Streetplay ‘99”) into the rolling blackouts for both U.S. Coast’s (“Blackout City Serenade”) via “Halliburton Blues,” and the personal alienation that accompanies living in a world clouded over by the harsh order of 9/11’s cultural aftermath (“Relive These X,” “Under the Ever-Watchful Eye,” and “Yesterday’s War”). Roth’s work is personal but it also connects the personal to the political in the most subtlety persuasive way. Avoiding lectures or preaching, he just recounts the low-level battles creeping everyday outside his front door. Somewhere between Thoreau’s “Walden” and Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” Someone, Somewhere’s ultimate effect is simultaneously unsettling and empowering. It reminds us that there are some compromises we must simply refuse to make.

Download Cover Art and Publicity Photos at www.Pattern25.com