NIMBY - Songs For Adults
SKU
ADHOC09
"Tired of hearing music designed for teenagers? Bored with all that revisionist jazz and self-indulgent art-noise? Here's something completely unexpected, from veterans of Motor Totemist Guild, Thinking Plague, 5UU's, and Giant Ant Farm. The result of this detour from their usual avant-gardism is a splendid recording, made mostly live in a barn in the south of France, of a 21st Century song-cycle representing a tongue-in-cheek manifesto for middle age in crisis. But this is not a collection of songs so much as a quiver of sonic arrows, each set in an extant style (ballad, shuffle, dirge, tango, bossa nova). Moreover, the NIMBY players possess the musical chops to make this a swingin' scene from start to finish: Jerry Wheeler (trombone), David Kerman (drums), Bob Drake (bass), and James Grigsby (guitar) rip into the sides on this recording like beetles entering bark. And Wheeler's voice is an on-key velvet granite, perfect to intone Grigsby's crafty melodies and wry lyrics."
“NIMBY is James Grigsby (of the legendary Motor Totemist Guild) and US leftfield luminaries from Thinking Plague, Hail, The 5UUs and Giant Ant Farm Dave Kerman, Bob Drake and Jerry Wheeler.
The official story is that an electrical storm temporarily deranged their faculties, leaving their musical abilities unaffected, leading to this unaccountable recording, made more or less live in a barn in Southern France, with only a handful of overdubs added by engineer and bassist Drake.
Instead of making the cutting edge contemporary post rock record they planned, they wound up musically reverting to their youth while mentally indulging in the whiny frustrations of middle age.
Could it be worse? Yes. This is not just an album of songs, it's a concept album - and it documents what happens when a bunch of spoiled baby-boomers - mostly from Southern California - get old, grumpy and weird. At least they aren't pretending to be teenagers any more. And the songs are nicely crafted and well played. And they haven't managed completely to suppress the urge to get weird now and then with the arrangements. Track 8, for instance. Hmm.
And there are those, wishing to be generous, who will say that there is an element of satire involved here, even that the record is light and ... fun. But that would be going too far.”-Chris Cutler
- LabelAd Hoc
- UPC187914000644
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