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For New Starts
Dd pulls recent CDs and worthwhile bands back through the cracks. 19.October.2006  The Carlton Chronicles South San Gabriel Misra, March 2005 Debuting this feature with one of Will Johnson's projects is both unnecessary and all too appropriate. Johnson has been a local music icon since he sent his "Centro-matic" four-track cassette tapes to friends in 1996 (and even before that as the drummer of almost-huge Dallas pop-rockers Funland). Ten years later, his four-piece band of the same name is followed by a dedicated cult of fans that grows across the nation as Centro opens for the likes of the Drive-By Truckers and Bobby Bare Jr. Still, his songwriting is prolific and spread across three monikers; anybody who newly discovers the band has over a dozen CDs of Johnson songwriting to dig through and pick from, most of which are jammed full of Centro-matic's rough-and-falling-over, bleeding-Americana rock. And Will Johnson's solo CDs are a stripped-down approximation of the same style, so they're not too much of a jump in style for Johnson fans. But what of South San Gabriel? Though known as a side project, the group is as lush a part-time gig as you'll find, a full band (all four Centro-matic hands on board and then some) teeming with guitars, organs, pedal steels and even synthesizers. But as familiar as Johnson's straining, husky singing voice is, the rest of the group's sound is relatively foreign compared to the Centro-matic catalog. Songs are not just slow and melancholy; the constructions are much airier, allowing for instrumental breaks and choruses made up solely of plodding, lulling notes. Those who come to the group expecting crunching guitars, monstrous piano parts and beat-me-up drumming won't leave happy. And those who come to the group's latest record expecting punchy, memorable singles will be disappointed. But those who embrace the band's similar influences in a different route will be rewarded with The Carlton Chronicles, the first--and best--concept album by Will Johnson. The premise is the death of a pet, and in that respect, the lyrics are already quite poetic: "If I could speak, you could perfectly see the physical terror encompassing me/The sweat from within, the quiver and shake, the mess on the bed, the slobber I make." Toss in the fact that the album was made shortly after a huge change in Johnson's life, and you can pick up the animal-to-human metaphors pretty quickly, even though they're often quite cleverly buried in the pet premise. But what pervades the disc even more than this treatise is the tone of discovery through melancholy, the kind of sadness that sounds like purging rather than mourning. "It's so good to be the predatory king today," Johnson croons in the song of the same name, and then he oohs over an instrumental chorus of moaning synthesizer, pensive piano and barely peeking pedal steel--the sound of an IV slowly refilling the speakers with life. Though immediately rewarding in composition and tone, the album's songs are not singles and are definitely not meant to be heard out of order. But to call the album's slow tempo either depressing or sleepy gives little credit to the band, who allow songs and mood to build in different ways every song and give more life to the album than you might expect. "Affection's The Pay" takes its acoustic time before stabbing the mix with a huge wail of electric noise, while "The Dark of Garage" is propelled like an autumn wind by an understated drum loop, synth chirps and Johnson's multi-tracked, high-pitched vocals. Anybody can rile a crowd up with an amp, but these guys create so much beauty and power with so little volume, taking cues from Americana songwriting greats and indie arrangers alike. Sadly, The Carlton Chronicles never received its critical due, unnoticed by blogs and forgotten in the blur of SXSW 2005 (although Allmusic.com has a wonderful review posted). But as cold weather finally makes its way to Dallas, consider curling up with this deserving record and taking stock of the pets and friends that have come and gone in your life. -SM MP3: The Dark of Garage MP3: I Am Six Pounds of Dynamite If you can't make it out to local shops like CD World and Good Records, purchase The Carlton Chronicles at Undertow Music. |