 | WONDERLOVE: getting off the revolution What if the Beatles got really pissed off?  |
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When my $10 review credit from garageband came through I blew it on Wonderloves' CD "Getting off the Revolution". This turns out to be a fantastic piece of work. What do they sound like, - Well, think of George Harrison, think of the Beatles' melodic and vocal harmony talents, then fast forward to the '80's and add a twist of Crowded House before skipping to the 90's and mixing in the Semisonic/Eels talent for adding chiming rock chords and a bit of grunge to a basically pop, hookish approach to songwriting.
Lyrically they're on the money courtesy of singer Chris Paul Overall's obvious love of wordplay and an endearing impulse to just be naughty. To wrongfoot. For example the lyric that you hear in the swaggering opener 'Dirty' sound like they're saying 'and we'll go down to the riverside', only when you check the lyric sheet ( a groovy retro touch in itself) do you find they're singing 'Let's go down to the wreckage site', - Puts a whole different spin on it don't it?. Its well worth mentioning that he has a fantastic range, - capable of screaming the house down towards the end of 'Dirty' and some great, controlled wailing as he cuts loose towards the end of 'Free'. Oh and I nearly forgot to mention the lyrical content - flawless matching of sentiment, mood and music in each and every case (except, of course, when the wrong-footing mode is enabled), and often spiced with a dash of sheer mischief, - watch out for the sleeper lyrics on the superficially innocent sounding acoustic number 'Stoney River', - a peerless piece of songwriting by anyones' standards and yet another demonstration that the very best music can be so simple in its execution as long as the germ of brilliance is behind it. Brilliant simplicity - an ideal to strive for. As I've noted with my comments on Neil Young the greatest songs say something. All on this CD do, I guess that Chris is the pivot in this department. There's some genius budding here.
Musically there is a lot of good stuff going on. Guitarist Bryan McIntyre draws from a kaleidoscope of references. On 'Dirty' its a skillful deconstruction of Jimi Hendrix's 'Spanish Castle Magic' and aspects of 'Voodoo Chile' in terms of both rhythmic structure and actual sound, with which he masterfully manages to add impact to what is a pop/rock romp rather than swamp it with guitar poses. Elsewhere McIntyre is George Harrison (Why Don't you..) other times Pete Townsend and towards the end of 'All these Roses' he's Neil Young.
Keyboardist Jesse Nason does a capable job of filling out the sound with Hammond, Rhodes and what's credited as synth. I think I either hear emu's Vintage Keys or else they're lugging a Mellotron around for numbers like 'All these Roses' and 'Beleive'. If you grew up listening to the Beatles or King Crimson you'll immediately smile when you hear those magnificent wheezy mellotron string sounds cranking up in the just the places you hoped they would. Scattered throughout the album and particularly on the end of 'Free' are some lovely bloops, bleeps, echoes and embellishments, something in the style of Paul Wellers solo stuff.
I talked to Jesse about his sounds and he had this to say "as far as my keys go, let me tell you this: the mellotron sounds come from my sampler...the samples came from sampling a roland sampling keyboard that had sampled a true mellotron...so i got 2nd generation flutes and strings, and its stretching the possiblities since my memory is small on my sampler, but it works...and along with various synths and pedals, i make all the bleeps and bloops as you so correctly pointed out.." As regards the recording experience Jesse says "I think a good 'how'd they do that' book could be written about the recording of that album...we had to take a trailer just to haul an upright piano from my mom's church to the studio...that's dedication."
Drum duties on this album were performed both by Jesse and regular drummer Dicki Flizar, who along with Dave Beste on Bass, occasional Classical Guitar and B/vox underpin and augment each song in the manner expected; Drums good. Bass good.
The second track in, 'She don't love you no more' seems to read straight out of the Beatles songwriter textbook. Which is fine by me. If the mop top boys were all still around and fresh as daisies I'd like to think this is the sort of stuff they'd be very happy to knock out in an afternoon sat round the magic piano. Straight in with the harmonised hook as the accompaniment crashes in and onto the double step verse this song would have been a tailor made opportunity for a bit of John Lennon sneer to be tempered by the honey tones of McCartney. Well of course that particular vocal duo is no longer available, but luckily Chris and co. are on hand to demonstrate what their modern day american acolytes can do with their legacy.
Moving on with the aforementioned 'Why don't you do something ... ' with its obvious but welcome George Harrison style cues, through further masterpices such as 'All these Roses' and 'Return' (Return is a seriously good song) Wonderlove keep the gems sparkling throughout. There is no weak song. Like some of the best stuff I've heard from all my favourite bands they tread an effortless route through the rock and pop formats, ones which are increasingly littered with opportunities for cliche, banality or outright Tap-ism. Not many acts can thread their way through these landmine areas with such natural assuredness. The reason? - this is no balancing act, - they know what they want to do and they are doing it!
As to whats happening right now, there's a new EP just hitting the streets and the band are gaining a mushrooming audience, playing hot L.A. places like the Viper Rooms. Jesse had this to say "we put that (CD) out in March of this year, and in May we recorded 4 more songs for an EP that we just put out called "Katherine Montgomery the Invalid." that EP was recorded at Scott Weiland's Lavish Studios. We're just playing shows trying to gain a bigger audience and also catch the attention of some labels." whilst guitarist and sonic temple pilot Bryan added "The new EP is an example of what we found out we were capable of with a history of playing together, doing some serious preproduction on the songs and really diving into the production process on some great equipment. I hope you like it, we're very proud. Lately we've just been gigging, writing and working harder and harder. "
Autumn 2001. Jesse Nason sent me a copy of Wonderlove's new EP "Katherine Montgomery the Invalid", here's an e-mail I sent off to Jesse after a couple of quick listens. Wonderlove's new EP "Katherine Montgomery the Invalid" ( my opinions didn't change that much with further listening although having recently seen 'Fork in the Road' performed live I can confirm its a great live track )
A surefire success story waiting to happen, I'll be watching closely to see how they progress from here, surely someone must be looking to sign them pretty soon. Check www.wonderlove.net I had quite an in-depth chat with Bryan about guitar-centric stuff, including how he gets some of his sounds. Guitarists and stomp box freaks will find this little bit interesting: Bryan McIntyre "Sonic Pilot"
March 2002. Check also my review of them live at the 'Carnival of Fools' in the section Live Reviews (Look for the section 'Carnival of Fools 29th March 2002)