| earlymay stay off your heels |
earlymay is a band ten years after their time. Cleaner than grunge, but alternately more sincere and less adventurous than “Alternative,” they would have fit in well on post-Nirvana AOR radio. Alas, post-Nirvana has become post-post Nirvana… and the “nostalgia” market is still stuck in the 80s. I’m not sure where earlymay will find a home today; as I listen to stay off your heels I keep thinking of South Park ’s “Man from 1996.” (Perhaps they can tour Des Moines… ). This is unfortunate: stay off your heels is a tuneful, thoughtful piece of work, which deserves a larger audience. Unlike most of today’s alternative rock bands, earlymay does not pay homage to rap-metal or hip hop. stay off your heels could have been recorded in some parallel universe where Eminem still lives with his Mom in the trailer park and Korn and Slipknot are still asking “Do you want fries with that?” In this parallel universe, musicians actually know how to play their instruments, and the rhythm is provided by real drummers, not machines. (Robby Vansaders is to be commended for his tasteful percussion, which runs the gamut from the driving beat of “come around” to the slow tapping that underpins “plummet.”) The guitar work from Vis Crockett and lead singer Brad Peterson is melodic, hook-laden and hummable. The acoustic openings of “what you wanted” and "stay off your heels” set a melancholy mood which continues throughout the songs. The melodies are strengthened by piano and keyboard work from Charles Newman, as well as contributions from Sinead Hollis on violin and Ariane Lallemand on cello. The musicianship is generally excellent… although Peterson’s vocals could stand some improvement. At present he is a competent singer, who gets his point across, but his voice is not particularly strong. This is not a fatal flaw so much as an area for improvement: Peterson would definitely benefit from some voice lessons. If he learned to project his voice a bit more, and mastered some breathing lessons and gained some confidence he could easily go from competent to superb. The raw material is definitely there: all he needs is a bit of refinement. Most pop is a guilty pleasure: you don’t need to feel guilty about liking earlymay. They are working in a well-mined vein, even one which most would call “overmined.” And yet they still manage to find a few gems here. Some will tell you that tuneful, guitar-driven rock music has gone the way of the dinosaur: if that’s the case, earlymay is here to take you on a tour of Jurassic Park. 1. a.m. Brad Peterson: lead vocal, guitars, tambourine Additional Musicians: earlymay website: label: Motherwest |