The Sportsmans Club
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The Sportsmans Club

Band Folk Singer/Songwriter

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"Moments In Time"

By John Ros

In the southern part of Ohio, east of Batavia, the land opens wide, and nights are alive with bugs—crickets mostly—humming a tune that vibrates across the fields before reaching the houses standing like sentinels atop the flatness.
On one of these nights, in August or maybe September, Mike Brewer took a laptop computer and guitar, left his family at an in-laws' farmhouse, walked into the dark and recorded a song.
The lyrics to "Beautiful Night" were unrehearsed, the dainty acoustic notes were a bit loose, and soon after, he overdubbed background vocals and a second lick.
But it's that first moment he holds dear: His wife and kids safe nearby, he could sit beneath the stars, on a driveway still warm from the sun, and be alone with the crickets.
"There was this amazing vibe going on, and it just kind of happened," said Brewer, a laidback 37-year-old who speaks with the casual, friendly tone of someone content with things. "That's kind of the whole idea behind the sound and these songs. It's all these small little moments in time."
He included 15 of these moments on Falling Scenery Converts, to be released this weekend at MadLab Theatre, and each has a story, a history, a sense of place.
"Mightier Than the Sword" is an ode to Elliott Smith, an obvious influence on this track and others, recorded only days after the singer's death. "Easy Ride" was performed in a room at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills—the bare, tinny vocals and guitar ripped several years ago from a video camera Brewer uses for work.
And "Fame's Vampires" tells of longing and homesickness: While Brewer was attending a New York music festival in 2002, his wife called to tell him that his second child was to be a boy.
Most of the songs are as intimate, a tone achieved through delicate vocals, an ear for acoustics and Brewer's penchant for the first take; others are buttressed but unfettered by an extra guitar, harmonica accompaniment, drums or keyboard riff.
Brewer has played with local bands Lori and Kola Koca Death Squad, but the Sportsman's Club, his solo project's formal name, has allowed him to recount and honor a life lived through music. Handpicked from the past seven years and unaltered from original forms, the songs collected stand as a diary of a man never more than an arm's reach from a guitar.
"They're all like little children to me," Brewer added about looking back over a decade of songs. "In the back of your mind, you know what the standout tracks are. You always kind of know where they're at on your hard drive."

March 1st, 2007
 
Copyright © 2007 Columbus Alive, Inc. All rights reserved. - Columbus ALive


"Falling Scenery Converts"

If the face rings a bell but the name hasn't yet, it's because you're looking at Columbus music veteran Mike Brewer, who's debuting a collection of home recordings this weekend under the moniker The Sportsman’s Club. Representing the softer side of a guy who's fronted more rowdy acts like Kola Koca Death Squad and the now defunct Lori, Falling Scenery Converts is comprised of essentially just Brewer and his acoustic guitar, with only occasional computerized fiddling. The recording mechanics suit the style of the songs, which have a purity or bareness which at times gives one the impression of stumbling on a sketchbook of interesting, but not wholly realized ideas. That missing refinement may be in part due to making these songs, as Brewer says "in whatever window life allows," which in his case means over a span of 6 years and in such disparate locations as a farm road (complete with an all-insect backing band) to a New York hotel room.

The themes are simple and organic, songs are just repetitive enough to be catchy, and last only long enough to set the hook before moving on to something new in the next track. Brewer has accomplished no small feat with these songs in finding that often elusive sweet spot between honesty and overly-sincere mush, a lesson that more than one guy on a coffee shop stool could stand to learn.

While most songs have a folk-inspired quietude with a slow tempo and Brewer's almost whispered vocals, there are moments of levity that belie his pop sensibilities. It wouldn't surprise me if that combination drew comparisons to the solo work of Jeff Tweedy or John Vanderslice. Those moments of upswing do keep things interesting without being quirky, but make no mistake about it- where Kola Koca Death Squad might have been your drunken Saturday night, The Sportsman's Club is your cup of coffee on Sunday morning. There is a richness in the simplicity of The Sportsman's Club, and light-hearted candor coupled with really fine song writing create an album that's easy to return to.

The CD release is being celebrated this Saturday, March 3rd at MadLab Theater with a really great billing of artists including Jon Chinn, Chris McCoy and Lizard McGee, all guys who also know how to do the solo thing quite well when they're without their bands. The previously mentioned Lori will also be reuniting for this event, which means this is going to be a party. Paper Airplane rounds out the lineup. Music starts and 9:00 and will cost you a mere 5 bucks. - Donewaiting.com


Discography

Falling Scenery Converts (LP) 2006

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Bio

Basically it's a one man show but plenty of people have pitched in here and there live and on recordings. This really is just featuring some pissing around with various software on the ole laptop trying to make music in whatever window life allows. It's not perfect but it's real. The best take at that moment in time or the only take in that moment in time. Mainly all first take stuff, demo's really, straight from me to ones and zeros, and now to whomever listens.