Roses & Clover
ALO
Brushfire
It’s nice to have a keyboard band where the keys don’t smother the guitar; ALO (formerly known as the Animal Liberation Orchestra) nearly equally incorporates the two into its easy-listening/jam-band/classic-rock sound.
Now, following a soundtrack, EP and debut full-length, the Santa Barbara-originated confabulation has gotten serious about its music, as these songs weren’t fine-tuned in concert for years before being laid down in the studio.
That is, with the exception of “Plastic Bubble,” a concert favorite that has no keyboards (save for a tad of Brent Mydland-style tinkling during the instrumental bridge) and a calypso vibe courtesy Zach Gill’s tickling of the ukulele strings instead of the ivories.
“Try” and “Shine” also have a vaguely island feel. “I kind of associate reggae music with feeling good,” guitarist Dan Lebowitz told Good New Music. “With ‘Roses & Clover,’ we were in a space where we were feeling really positive, and I think that this led to the subconscious appropriation of some reggae rhythms.”
Other highlights include “Monday” (an electro-acoustic affair comprised of acoustic guitar contrasted with synthesizer riffs that could be referencing Wings’ “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five”) and “Lady Loop” (imagine Bruce Hornsby getting funky with Jean-Jacques Perrey at a disco).
Gill informed GNM that Hornsby was an inspiration at a fairly young age: “I became aware of Bruce Hornsby in the early ’80s with his song ‘The Way It Is.’ His playing on that song still blows me away despite the kind of dated ’80s tones on the rest of the track. Years later, in high school when I was getting into jazz, I picked up his ‘Harbor Lights’ album. The piano playing on that album is really, really amazing. It’s one of those albums where he jams with a lot of different people – Jerry Garcia, Branford Marsalis, Pat Metheney and Bonnie Raitt. Hearing Bruce in that context made me aware that there were musicians out there who didn’t just write and sing great pop songs but could also improvise like jazz players.”
To hear some of Gill’s own jamming, check out any of the 130-plus ALO-sanctioned free concert downloads available from the Internet Archive’s Live Music Archive (look under Animal Liberation Orchestra).
external links
artist’s link
amazon.com
iTunes Store
|
