Who Sings Feel The Noise

True Widow: AHATHHAFTCTTCOTE

Common wisdom has it that a band’s second album is a proving ground. Whatever novelty it had from the debut has worn out; either the band can rest on its laurels and repeat its successful performance or else find something new that pushes boundaries. On True Widow’s follow up to 2008’s solid self-titled debut, the Texas trio takes a third but equally successful route: the band pares its sound down to its barest elements and thus bests its earlier album at its own game. Where the first album provided a nice slow desert revamp of ‘90s shoegaze and grunge tropes, As High as the Highest Heavens and from the Center to the Circumference of the Earth makes these references into something new, what the band calls “stonegaze”, minimal expanses of painfully slow, but overwhelmingly effective heavy rock songs.

True Widow plays so slowly that it seems impossible. The best track on the album, “NH”, has a near-Black Sabbath riff of heavy guitar doubled with fuzzy bass—but the song is slower than even Sabbath would do it. The drums crash with every chord, but there is so much space between that the reverberation takes over the playing. On top of this, Dan Philips, who doubles as guitarist, sings with a weary ache the simple and inscrutable lyrics, “Out in the hue and cry / I know I have been a liar / And of the curtain call / I know where I’ll go this time”. Though the nearly seven-minute-long track only goes through this single verse twice (once fuzzy, once clean), and there is no real chorus to speak of, it never feels dragging. The rhythm plods along, but the long drawn-out dynamics are breathtaking.

Bassist Nikki Estill sings as well with a similar vocal approach to Philips: slow and narcotic. The feminine touch brings to mind some ‘90s touchstones, like the Breeders in a K hole, or a minimalist My Bloody Valentine. But Estill doesn’t really lighten things up. She sings on the pounding opener, “Jackyl”, which sets the tone for the whole album of sludgy shoegaze and spaced-out singing. Compared to the first album, Philips has shed some of his more obvious grunge influences. His voice mixes elements of Will Oldham and Josh Homme, sweet but weary. When Estill and Philips harmonize, an indelible sweetness overlays the doomed rawness of the music.

The album sticks to a pretty consistent formula of heavy, slow, and dreamy. The internal space each song has conjures up evening desert stretches of limitless clouds and sky. The Western feel of restraint and aggression in the reverb-heavy music gets tempered by the sensitive inwardness of the enigmatic but emotional lyrics. Just by looking at the song titles, like “Blooden Horse”, “Skull Eyes”, and “Doomser”, you would think this is a metal album. But the lyrics, however strange, don’t quite match with the genre these tough names evoke. The major feeling is a sense of awkward longing that bespeaks lost love.

Legit Music Reviews: Review #241: Mark Prindle - My Wife Left Me ...

Mark Prindle is a somewhat notorious reviewer of music from New York who often does very interesting and humorous music reviews with a writing style and personality incomparable to most. He has been writing since 1996 and recording music since 1998. This new CD released in December features tracks from many of his previous CD's from over a decade span of 1998 to 2007! Therefore, we are left with a beautiful, surprisingly fluid compilation of forty amazing songs. I would say that Mark Prindle is as creative a musician as he is a writer... this shit rivals Ween in terms of silliness + musical talent and is easily one of THE very greatest records to be made over the past decade. I guess this makes me apart of the problem seeing as I was unaware of his music before this CD... which was the first time I even had a chance to hear the music. But yes, totally great and versatile and FACUNDO HAS A CRUSH ON MARK PRINDLE so let's get started on this amazing quest through one man's mind. He's Mark D. Prindle. A somewhat hilarious "live" (a.k.a. fake arena audience background noise) parody of arena rock. It's pretty great and Mark's voice in the beginning is fucking hilarious as he attempts to sound like a high-pitched '70s rocker but ends up sounding like Mickey Mouse... after the main sung parts, the various members of the band all show off their SKILLZ on the instruments they play, including a pretty kick-ass but un-pretentious lead guitar solo. Who wouldn't love that, right? I FEEL ALRIGHT!!!! YOU'RE WELCOME FOR COMIN' DOWN! One of the saddest songs I have ever heard... a little bit of wimpering feedback and then you hear a descending guitar melody that trickles down the earscope/whatever like teardrops from a man like Mark Prindle who knows the true meaning of pain apparently. But seriously, this song is very sad-sounding. I remember the first time I heard this song I was very stoned and sad began to get even sadder after hearing this and then proceeded to go on a destructive half-nude rampage around my house destroying various pieces of furniture... but that's a whole 'nother story. Seriously, if this song can't make you cry then you have no soul. Just like me because souls don't exist. Think about that next time you trip on robitussin! This song is kinda slow... halfway through, the song stops and Mark starts singing about somebody ripping up one of his trading cards as a bunch of CHOMP sounds repeat...

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