Verbow
Chronicles (Sony)
by Austin Nash
This show started out as a guitar/cello duo held dear by an asphalt cowboy named Justin and some slick chick named Allison… no wait, fuck, it’s – Jason, yes, Jason. JASON AND ALLISON!!! They made a disc before the Verbow thing in 19- dag, a few years ago… called – shit… I’m remembering this as I go along… what the hell was the name of that album?!?!?! Crap, crapcrapcrap, I’m getting pissed at this. It’ll come, cumma cumma cumma cumma FUCKa FUCKa FUCKa FUCKa FUCKa (a queer train wouldn’t you say?)WOODSHED!!! There it is! A goddamned cello/guitar thing called Wood shit –shed. Shit. Too much coffee again.
Ahhhh… got a Shipyard and a cool fan blowin’ up my nuts. I think I’ll sit here and RELAX A MINUTE. WANT TO RELAX WITH ME??? HUH??? Well, grab your glass and have a seat, lemme tell ya a story ’bout BigAssed Little and Yukon Pete… some other time. It would seem that the Woodshed project, then under the name Jason & Allison (duh…) received much press and acclaim as an intensely rockin’ acoustic monstrosity which landed them slots with Live, Bob Mould, Morphine, Liz Phair, and a few others that I just can’t, JUST CAN’T, I TELL YOU, seem to remember and I don’t friggin’ feel like looking it up. You know this job isn’t half as glamorous as you might think it is, yeah, you with your skateboards and your chicks with big shoes and unsheathed tits under the HOT summer sun… that yellow and white checked dress, like a picnic blanket with a little more sunshine. Ohhhh ahhhh – I’d sure like to play checkers on you baby. Oh? Yadda yadda do to you too.
The Jason & Allison thing (bet they screw) turned into Verbow several months after they started playing together, and he’d stopped viewing her as a mere accompaniment, as she was now a graduate of some CA classical music skool and could compose as well as rock out on the cello. Rocking out on a cello is cool, but kind of granola. In support I quote, “her own listening and lifestyle was really affected by the late ’70s mode revival.” “Oh God,” I said out loud to my beerfriend (as opposed to girlfriend). The album Chronicles, which is what this is supposed to be about, turns out to be a very refreshing smooth rock thing that sounds a hell of a lot like a Bob Mould thing. What? Oh, He recorded and mixed it? I wonder if they happened to sound like Bob, so He liked it, or if He liked it and made it sound like Him? I would like to ask that question sometime to somebody who might have an answer, not you fuckers.
Sometimes Chronicles takes on a “Strawberry Fields Forever” sound. A guy said to me in a bar the other day that he measures all production sound and the song quality of the things of his own that he records by late Beatles stuff. Guess I would have to be over 40 to appreciate that with him. I always hated the Beatles. They suck.
Strawberry fields forever my ass.
“Good music compels us to think about the musicians, but great music compels us to think about ourselves.”
Special mention to song #10 on Chronicles, “Slumbering Blue.” One of the Beatles-esque types, but the B’s could take lessons. Verbow sounds big on this new product, the songs are very well-written, and it has the kind of wheatfield-raking feel that leads me to believe it makes one hell of an acoustic set of its own. Don’t just listen to me (you did too), check out Chronicles.
