Calico Sunset CD Review for Deep Deep Paranoia - By N.L. Belardes
I was at the Empty Space recently, that place where my photo art hung (and still hangs for the next few weeks), and where Calico Sunset was the only Bakersfield music scene representatives to show up to the art opening. I had been a bit under the weather from it all, even though Joseph and Jenny did show up to drop off their album, Deep Deep Paranoia. Still grim the following day, even after doing write-ups about attending gigs, and two nights before giving 4-5 hours of my time at a hardcore Bakersfield show over at Studio 99. But now I was thinking, “What is it? Bands don’t understand I’m an artist too? Or do they only read my site when they know I’m going to write about them?” These are the wallowing pitiful thoughts of any novelist, artist or band: the need for recognition from fellow artists, not just from the 100s who read the blog and listen to the podcast.… Yeah, I knew something was going down at the Dome during my show; 22 bands worth of raucous Bakersfield sounds. But then I could list many bands who could have showed. I suppose it’s like this: I write about the music scene, so I wrongly expect all involved in music to keep up with my music news, and not just that, but to return the love. Traffic is incredible… between 500-1000 hits a day and growing. So what happened? Still exploring that one… Makes me wonder if locals will support the novelist in me more than the photographer…
All this whining and complaining; what is it leading to you might ask? I was home the next day, still in a grey fuzz when I decided to spin the Calico Sunset CD…
What a refreshingly happy techno album to listen to in our grim Bakersfield world and dark city of bad air, traffic congestion and recent high homicide rates. With echoes of New Order, Bjork, Joy Electric, the Sugarcubes, a hint of Portishead, and even the Sundays, Calico Sunset’s debut album Deep Deep Paranoia is a friendly cloud of light-hearted techno music for the embittered soul in need of rejuvenation. This isn’t a wimpy powerpuff girls soundtrack but a techno-filled CD of music meant for listeners of all ages who care about their happy souls. Bakersfield has been known more for its angry working class sounds in hardcore, Indie and country bands than for its 80s revival sounds in bands like the Dalloways and now Calico Sunset. And this is a signed band. Check out Velvet Blue Music.
The CD starts off with a techno drum beat symbolizing a synch-filled anthem to youth pop. “Sweet Sixteen, Dancing Machine” enlightens us to Jenny Alvis’ girlish voice that sings with as much confidence as those early Sugarcubes albums imported from Iceland in the 1980s. It’s a bit whiny, a bit seductive and playful, but with a lot of chorus melody and filled with a hint of Swing Out Sister swirled in with what you might call a ‘Bjork audio anthem’. Echoing the rest of the CD, Calico Sunset plays with techno sounds in repetitive patterns and drum loops that are as silly, passionate and fun as the distorted voices and light-hearted lyrics of the entire CD.
The smiling burst of guitars in “The Revival Fatale” after the distorted voice beginning makes for my favorite song from the CD; it’s possibly the most passionate-sounding. The music itself takes me back to days of listening to instrumentals by Johnny Marr of the Smiths and some of the guitar-driven New Order songs from their classic CD, Technique. Musicians Jenny Alvis and Joseph Andreotti are a fine duo in this song that I can’t really understand the lyrics, but I can listen along to its stripped down 80s sounds of happy-in-my-own guitar melodies that are so reminiscent of techno yesteryear. I have found myself listening to this song five and six times in a row, just wishing its patterns were happily implanted in my head as I needed such rejuvenation in song… I mean, who gives a fuck; it was just an art show, right? Now I have Calico Sunset.
The strength of “Limbs and Hymns” is its Bjork-sounding melodies that strike the listener between singing, “Makes me wanna, wanna pow! Pow! Pow! Words are weak, actions are strong. Is there meaning to this upset song…?” Forget the repetitiveness of the music. I can get over that for Jenny Alvis singing to me as if she’d just listened to Bjork’s Vespertine for the twentieth time straight. I love it. The synth bass is a rubber band sounding thump that falls in with the drum track; all overpowered by Jenny’s attitude-filled singing and high-pitched squeak just before each chorus. It’s the choir-like chiming voice that gets me though… Oops, I think I’ve just admitted my fascination for Bjork.
“Not Human” is a typical synth song you have heard a million times, except for one thing. Jenny Alvis is singing. She starts off singing over and over that she is not human, and just before you want to call her a dark robotic voice haunting this song, she pushes her voice into a chorus that is as catchy as any other song on the album. The synth layers help make this song a capable and loveable 80s revival piece.
“Crime Cinema” is a great name for a song. It moans like a siren that disappears into Jenny’s voice as if she is singing to herself in a mirror. I imagine her in an old 80s video, a cheesy story, a few dancers twirling about her as she sings in Madonna fashion to herself and then to her dancing minions. The piano chords chirp and the techno-fusion of its sound make this song one of those that cascade dark thoughts into a happy crescendo of Calico Sunset dreams. In the end, the song falls apart, purposely so, as if Jenny herself met a tragic ending to a low harmonica wail and wayward piano that drifts into a sea of stumbling sounds.
Dark bass techno sounds with the mix of Jenny’s voice has really taken me by this point. Why has this band been hiding from me? Jenny’s voice is seductive, “I’m in the trunk, blindfold on my eyes…Shut into the trunk with the blindfold on…” We’re there with Jenny who sings and moans, whispering in the darkness in the song, “Unsolved Mysteries.”
Of course Calico Sunset had to throw in a song called “Heavy Breathing” about some creepy stalker chasing some abstract metaphor of Jenny with a knife. “Breathe in, Breathe out, heavy breathing, heavy breathing…” she sings as if instructing us to be the very stalker himself… She gives us the moan of the heavy breather in a suck of air that when she pushes the air out in a moaning exhale, she makes us think that stalkers aren’t so bad if they sound like her…
“Break It” instantly reminded me of “Break Out” by Swing Out Sister. But then the song takes shape and Jenny becomes herself again: that youthful voice of Calico Sunset that is as easy to like as it is to fall into a happy mood while listening. Joseph does some strangely melodic synth sounds during a musical bridge and his guitar work, so slightly layered and under-powering gives the song a delightful edge as if the sounds themselves are fragile.
“The Frown Winter Found” is a rich song, full in its guitar sounds and Jenny’s vocals that blend in headphones magically… but why mention it—go explore for yourself…
The CD finishes off with a super techno ditty that sounds like it drifted from the 1980s onto their album, a lost track from Missing Persons that made its way into Calico Sunsets dreamy musical landscape. I would wonder if Jenny wears fishbowls, but Joseph might just pull one over my head…
Most Calico Sunset songs are under three minutes, but they all have a lasting flavor of retro 80s tunes synched to today’s alternative Techno lounge, electro-pop echoes. If you’re a fan of the 80s, or just a lover of happy music with a hint of a darkly seductive musical edge, then go buy the Calico Sunset CD and support the local arts; it’s rare that a band from Bakersfield is signed.
Please support the arts... the bands at least deserve it.
Calico Sunset will be playing tonight, Aug 8th at the Boiler Room
All this whining and complaining; what is it leading to you might ask? I was home the next day, still in a grey fuzz when I decided to spin the Calico Sunset CD…
What a refreshingly happy techno album to listen to in our grim Bakersfield world and dark city of bad air, traffic congestion and recent high homicide rates. With echoes of New Order, Bjork, Joy Electric, the Sugarcubes, a hint of Portishead, and even the Sundays, Calico Sunset’s debut album Deep Deep Paranoia is a friendly cloud of light-hearted techno music for the embittered soul in need of rejuvenation. This isn’t a wimpy powerpuff girls soundtrack but a techno-filled CD of music meant for listeners of all ages who care about their happy souls. Bakersfield has been known more for its angry working class sounds in hardcore, Indie and country bands than for its 80s revival sounds in bands like the Dalloways and now Calico Sunset. And this is a signed band. Check out Velvet Blue Music.
The CD starts off with a techno drum beat symbolizing a synch-filled anthem to youth pop. “Sweet Sixteen, Dancing Machine” enlightens us to Jenny Alvis’ girlish voice that sings with as much confidence as those early Sugarcubes albums imported from Iceland in the 1980s. It’s a bit whiny, a bit seductive and playful, but with a lot of chorus melody and filled with a hint of Swing Out Sister swirled in with what you might call a ‘Bjork audio anthem’. Echoing the rest of the CD, Calico Sunset plays with techno sounds in repetitive patterns and drum loops that are as silly, passionate and fun as the distorted voices and light-hearted lyrics of the entire CD.
The smiling burst of guitars in “The Revival Fatale” after the distorted voice beginning makes for my favorite song from the CD; it’s possibly the most passionate-sounding. The music itself takes me back to days of listening to instrumentals by Johnny Marr of the Smiths and some of the guitar-driven New Order songs from their classic CD, Technique. Musicians Jenny Alvis and Joseph Andreotti are a fine duo in this song that I can’t really understand the lyrics, but I can listen along to its stripped down 80s sounds of happy-in-my-own guitar melodies that are so reminiscent of techno yesteryear. I have found myself listening to this song five and six times in a row, just wishing its patterns were happily implanted in my head as I needed such rejuvenation in song… I mean, who gives a fuck; it was just an art show, right? Now I have Calico Sunset.
The strength of “Limbs and Hymns” is its Bjork-sounding melodies that strike the listener between singing, “Makes me wanna, wanna pow! Pow! Pow! Words are weak, actions are strong. Is there meaning to this upset song…?” Forget the repetitiveness of the music. I can get over that for Jenny Alvis singing to me as if she’d just listened to Bjork’s Vespertine for the twentieth time straight. I love it. The synth bass is a rubber band sounding thump that falls in with the drum track; all overpowered by Jenny’s attitude-filled singing and high-pitched squeak just before each chorus. It’s the choir-like chiming voice that gets me though… Oops, I think I’ve just admitted my fascination for Bjork.
“Not Human” is a typical synth song you have heard a million times, except for one thing. Jenny Alvis is singing. She starts off singing over and over that she is not human, and just before you want to call her a dark robotic voice haunting this song, she pushes her voice into a chorus that is as catchy as any other song on the album. The synth layers help make this song a capable and loveable 80s revival piece.
“Crime Cinema” is a great name for a song. It moans like a siren that disappears into Jenny’s voice as if she is singing to herself in a mirror. I imagine her in an old 80s video, a cheesy story, a few dancers twirling about her as she sings in Madonna fashion to herself and then to her dancing minions. The piano chords chirp and the techno-fusion of its sound make this song one of those that cascade dark thoughts into a happy crescendo of Calico Sunset dreams. In the end, the song falls apart, purposely so, as if Jenny herself met a tragic ending to a low harmonica wail and wayward piano that drifts into a sea of stumbling sounds.
Dark bass techno sounds with the mix of Jenny’s voice has really taken me by this point. Why has this band been hiding from me? Jenny’s voice is seductive, “I’m in the trunk, blindfold on my eyes…Shut into the trunk with the blindfold on…” We’re there with Jenny who sings and moans, whispering in the darkness in the song, “Unsolved Mysteries.”
Of course Calico Sunset had to throw in a song called “Heavy Breathing” about some creepy stalker chasing some abstract metaphor of Jenny with a knife. “Breathe in, Breathe out, heavy breathing, heavy breathing…” she sings as if instructing us to be the very stalker himself… She gives us the moan of the heavy breather in a suck of air that when she pushes the air out in a moaning exhale, she makes us think that stalkers aren’t so bad if they sound like her…
“Break It” instantly reminded me of “Break Out” by Swing Out Sister. But then the song takes shape and Jenny becomes herself again: that youthful voice of Calico Sunset that is as easy to like as it is to fall into a happy mood while listening. Joseph does some strangely melodic synth sounds during a musical bridge and his guitar work, so slightly layered and under-powering gives the song a delightful edge as if the sounds themselves are fragile.
“The Frown Winter Found” is a rich song, full in its guitar sounds and Jenny’s vocals that blend in headphones magically… but why mention it—go explore for yourself…
The CD finishes off with a super techno ditty that sounds like it drifted from the 1980s onto their album, a lost track from Missing Persons that made its way into Calico Sunsets dreamy musical landscape. I would wonder if Jenny wears fishbowls, but Joseph might just pull one over my head…
Most Calico Sunset songs are under three minutes, but they all have a lasting flavor of retro 80s tunes synched to today’s alternative Techno lounge, electro-pop echoes. If you’re a fan of the 80s, or just a lover of happy music with a hint of a darkly seductive musical edge, then go buy the Calico Sunset CD and support the local arts; it’s rare that a band from Bakersfield is signed.
Please support the arts... the bands at least deserve it.
Calico Sunset will be playing tonight, Aug 8th at the Boiler Room
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Monday, August 08, 2005.
You can leave your response.
leave a response