But running her a close second is Inge Colson of presshere. First she turned me onto Falu, next she turned Mike Nessing onto the Australian rock band the Middle East and now she has completed the triumverate with Transfer, a West Coast band.
The bio says Brit bombast plus the grit of the West. I think they met the South but either way I don’t quite get the comparison. Somebody else said Jeff Buckley meets My Morning Jacket.
I don’t quite hear any of those comparisons: the backing track reminds me of the roiling sound of the Verve a little but it is pretty original stuff, the vocals are an indie rock soprano almost but not quite reaching a falsetto. On the song I’ve heard, the melodic and alluring “Losing Composure” I would dub em indie over classic rock, Brit over US rock, and poetic as opposed to prosaic lyrically. They kinda Brooklyn, kinda Bon Iver -all beer and hunting jacket and they come across as sensitive rockers a little.
But what puts them across, as a potential break out band, is how good the songs are. If you got rid of the needles and the brains and the breakdowns and the voices running thru your head, “Losing Your Composure” would SOUND TERRIFIC. It could with stand an acoustic guitar rendition, it could withstand anything really. However I think they think there a little deeper than they are: on Transfer’s blog they wrote: “I would love to explain the meaning behind the lyrics, (soon to be posted on the LYRICS section of our new site), but i think it might be more meaningful finding its place in relative thought.”
But not only am I being snide here I am also kinda wrong because a later song “Waking Sleep” (a take on Linklater’s Waking Life?) comes with this explanation and not only lives up to it but sounds up to it with some awesome background harmony’s “WAKE TO SLEEP was a contribution from the cracks in Card’s brain. The lyric explores that space between reality and lucid dreams that one can rarely distinguish while under its spell. I remember seeing a figure in my room as a young boy and then coming to and it being gone. I was confused as to whether it was a figment of my imagination or an apparition. “I was a lonely boy. Asleep, unhinged my mind would run”. As I discovered through reading about sleep paralysis, it is very common that one may remember a space between conscious and unconsciousness quite vividly. I think I took comfort in this idea. Also because ghosts scared the shit out of me when I was a lad. It’s our pirate chantey…check it out. (contributions from the San Diego Symphony Orchestra makes this one live in our hearts)”
On “Like A Funeral’, one of the best songs on the album, Transfer note: ” Reverse horns wound up sounding like an accordion. Sometimes accidents breed discovery in the recording studio” something I couldn’t have noted with a treasure map and a big sign reading “dig here”.It’s a down beat but gorgeous melody -all these guys melodies hit hard at some point.
Here is Transfer’s website, you can stream before buying though you should take my word that Transfer are great. Or if not my word certainly Inge’s word. http://store2.bandfarm.com/transfer/blog/blog/?drange=a
2009-11-01
The best ears on a PR person I’ve ever known was Rhonda Shore of Chrysalis records back in the day. How good was she? She introduced me to X, that’s how good she was.