During Alberta Cross’ entire set at Amoeba on Monday night, I couldn’t ignore the fact that Petter Ericson Stakee’s high falsetto reminded me Neil Young’s. It was undeniable but definitively not a gimmick, these guys didn’t seem to be the faking type, as they played these epic songs filled with windy guitars tainted of a touch of Americana, which sounded like big-arena numbers even on the small stage of the store.
May be it was the trucker hat of the lead guitarist, may be it was the tambourine, their big ensemble (they were five on stage) and vocal harmonies, but there was definitively a large-open-landscape-feeling on their take of Southern rock… Southern rock? But they certainly were no Kings of Leon, their spacey rock was more diverse, inventive and inspired, and listening to their new album online ‘Songs of Patience’, I would say there was even a little bit of Oasis in the mix or something big and ambitious like this, in the good sense of the term,… I am already regretting to have mentioned the Followills brothers.
The layered guitars were thunderous with a real sense of danger, carrying Stakee’s soaring croon – I have already mentioned Young but some have compared it to My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, and I totally hear it now. They were playing with harmonies in ‘Magnolia’, and soothing visions of a slow raising morning sun, whereas other songs, such as ‘Crate of Gold’ or ‘ATX’, were bringing me right back to my first Neil-Young-Crazy-Horse impression. But I should try to give them back their own identity as their stadium numbers were building an impressive sonic wall, torn down by a ferocious lead guitar and a more introverted but distinct keyboard.
Petter Ericson Stakee introduced ‘Lay down’ with an English accent as a new one of their new album, and the song sounded slightly different, stretching the vocals toward a poppier and more-Gallagher-esque side of their multi-influences, although it was not obvious at first and it took me several listenings to realize this. But now that I think about it, there also was some Black Crowes in all this…
The band was originally formed by Stakee and Terry Wolfers (who plays bass) and they are originally from London via Sweden but are now based in New-York while projecting a certain romantic idea of Southern America music and having adopted a Canadian-sounding moniker,… confused? You shouldn’t be, there is nothing foreign in their familiar-sounding music, its uplifting power chords and its country-rock-folk-90s-Brit-pop fusion, and, despite this multi recycling of old genres – they even have a song called ‘The Thief & the Heartbreaker’, hello Tom? – they made their tunes sound authentic,… may be the only fake thing was their name, as Stakee said in an interview that it was an anagram for ‘Scab Realtors’?… take it for what it’s worth.
