Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
It’s a crapshoot, really. About 90 percent of the time, when I get a disc from a band I have not heard before, it ends up being pretty weak. Call it the law of averages or my pitiful lack of intuition; either way I’m left disappointed with another coaster for the coffee table. But for every vast majority of average and sub-par, I have found, there’s always a dimebag of serendipity. So it is with Speechwriters LLC’s The Bull Moose After Party: selected on whim and impressing me still.
The first thing I noticed was that this band does not seem content to emanate one persona. They constantly seem to shape-shift from song to song, but always maintaining their amicable foundation. There is the backwoods “Balk” to get your foot tapping, and the backroom, jazzy “Clones” to coax your inner urbanite. The band offers up a Ben Folds-like quirky-sweet melody “Or Something”(albeit guitar and not piano), and in the very the next song they call forth the ghost of Jamiroquai with “Spin Cycle”. The record is basically a stew of influences with simple, eloquent and mostly acoustic guitar as its stock.
Their crowning achievement on this disc is really the best song I’ve heard this year -- the funk-fed lyrical tide “Blood on the Frets”. Subtle pronounced drums yield to a gritty grooving guitar in this one, and lay the framework for what is an unnervingly great listen. The chorus was so entrenched in my head that I have on several occasions- in public and broad daylight- ended up singing it under my breath. It was embarrassing actually--there was a little girl that asked her mother if I was homeless—but that’s the kind of song this is. The words come at you in stream-of-consciousness fashion, poetic in their description of a prosaic day in the life of a jaded, covetous twenty-something. The band takes the mundane and masterfully infuses it with a quicksilver combination of longing and capitulation; and with lines like “The bile rising up in my throat is straight acidic, my record with the women like Ted’s at Chappaquiddick” you can marvel a bit at their cleverness as well.
Another nugget of great songwriting is the stealthily bitter “CHBB”. The song maintains a head-bobbing beat throughout, which is complemented by a variety of light-hearted guitar riffs at the end of each line of the song. However, this convivial background hides the cynical message within: “And there were granted wishes, and heartbreaking bitches and a world too inanimate to grab you by your britches and say: that you don’t ever want to be in love again.” They fool you into thinking everything is going to be all smiles, before bringing out the sulky words. It’s like being invited into someone’s house for a pleasant glass of hot chocolate, and before you know it you end up doing commiserative shots of Jack and passing out under the dining room table (not that that has happened to me before).
Throughout The Bull Moose After Party, Speechwriters LLC redefine their sound. They redefined it from song to song with chords and melodies, rather than from album to album with haircuts and a well-timed personality implant. They have fun with variety in Bull Moose, showing many sides of what they can do. And I for one can’t wait to see what they do next. - Glide Magazine
It’s a crapshoot, really. About 90 percent of the time, when I get a disc from a band I have not heard before, it ends up being pretty weak. Call it the law of averages or my pitiful lack of intuition; either way I’m left disappointed with another coaster for the coffee table. But for every vast majority of average and sub-par, I have found, there’s always a dimebag of serendipity. So it is with Speechwriters LLC’s The Bull Moose After Party: selected on whim and impressing me still.
The first thing I noticed was that this band does not seem content to emanate one persona. They constantly seem to shape-shift from song to song, but always maintaining their amicable foundation. There is the backwoods “Balk” to get your foot tapping, and the backroom, jazzy “Clones” to coax your inner urbanite. The band offers up a Ben Folds-like quirky-sweet melody “Or Something”(albeit guitar and not piano), and in the very the next song they call forth the ghost of Jamiroquai with “Spin Cycle”. The record is basically a stew of influences with simple, eloquent and mostly acoustic guitar as its stock.
Their crowning achievement on this disc is really the best song I’ve heard this year -- the funk-fed lyrical tide “Blood on the Frets”. Subtle pronounced drums yield to a gritty grooving guitar in this one, and lay the framework for what is an unnervingly great listen. The chorus was so entrenched in my head that I have on several occasions- in public and broad daylight- ended up singing it under my breath. It was embarrassing actually--there was a little girl that asked her mother if I was homeless—but that’s the kind of song this is. The words come at you in stream-of-consciousness fashion, poetic in their description of a prosaic day in the life of a jaded, covetous twenty-something. The band takes the mundane and masterfully infuses it with a quicksilver combination of longing and capitulation; and with lines like “The bile rising up in my throat is straight acidic, my record with the women like Ted’s at Chappaquiddick” you can marvel a bit at their cleverness as well.
Another nugget of great songwriting is the stealthily bitter “CHBB”. The song maintains a head-bobbing beat throughout, which is complemented by a variety of light-hearted guitar riffs at the end of each line of the song. However, this convivial background hides the cynical message within: “And there were granted wishes, and heartbreaking bitches and a world too inanimate to grab you by your britches and say: that you don’t ever want to be in love again.” They fool you into thinking everything is going to be all smiles, before bringing out the sulky words. It’s like being invited into someone’s house for a pleasant glass of hot chocolate, and before you know it you end up doing commiserative shots of Jack and passing out under the dining room table (not that that has happened to me before).
Throughout The Bull Moose After Party, Speechwriters LLC redefine their sound. They redefined it from song to song with chords and melodies, rather than from album to album with haircuts and a well-timed personality implant. They have fun with variety in Bull Moose, showing many sides of what they can do. And I for one can’t wait to see what they do next. - Glide Magazine
Strangely named. - The Onion
Strangely named. - The Onion
Discography
2004 - The Bull Moose After Party
"Spaghetti Streetwalker," "Anodyne," and "Hostage" have been featured on the WB's "Smallville," Wes Brown's "Peru," and PBS' "Roadtrip Nation," respectively. A rotating selection of streaming songs from the album are available at MySpace.com.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Speechwriters LLC have spent most of their twenties stuck in the slow currents of traffic and love, and it shows. From these accidental detours and standstills, they have crafted a sun-drenched soundtrack to California heartache that is at once modern and timeless.
The boys' master plan involves reaping the untouchable street cred of the North American folk singer, while simultaneously enjoying the benefits of being rock stars, but also not having to carry amps, and ultimately just getting girls to like them. Speechwriters LLC has toured 32 states so far and will be on the road again in late 2005.
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