I’m not saying that Chicago is the only town making music worth hearing - I am just obsessed with a bunch of local bands right now, is all. And today’s obsession amongst obsessions is the latest offering from Bicycle, Tricycle, Stay Foolish Stay Hungry (B.T. also sports the coolest band name of the scene). The brains of the operation, Bohb Blair, when he’s not saving the world from palindromes, writes about the upside of being the geek in High School, namely you may eventually get to lead a successful band and write songs with names like ‘Drugs R 4 Doin’. Amongst other things, of course.
Yes, just like previous effort Real As You Believe, B.T. is dishing up songs that are so good, memorable and jovial that I can’t believe haven’t existed forever. Borrow or rob? No, just well done like someone’s great idea that you can’t believe you didn’t think of first. They have the air of standards, helped no doubt by leaning heavily (but not too much) on vintage instruments, thick backing vocals, lush strings and enjoyable situational lyrics. It’s more sensitive moments sound like Sonny and Cher as played by the Grass Roots; and before that gets old, Hall and Oates has a love child with T Rex.
Stay Foolish Stay Hungry is a group effort too, beyond Bohb and his band. Members of other Chicago outfits like Poi Dog Pondering, contributed to add to the album’s richness (and my deepening belief that Chicago is the epicenter of everything right now) and tastefully so. It’s not a Chicago-is-the-best rub-off-fest, but it’s a good sign of what mama’s cookin’ ’round here.
Release date: 01-08
Label: None
Sounds like: UFO Tofu
2 Comments »
As far as band name goes, I’m partial to Adam Smith and Your Invisible Hands.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Comment by hotshotrobot — February 8, 2008 @ 12:48 pm
The brains of the operation, Bohb Blair, when he’s not saving the world from palindromes,
All right, asshole, this means war.