Review Of Orchestraville's CD: At Night It Is Particularly Lovely
By Matthew Toledo 8/29/2001
Orchestraville's latest effort has all the dissonant math-rock melodies and vivid lyrical imagery you would expect from one of Athens' finest exports. Unfortunately, very few locals and students outside of the Union crowd know who Orchestraville (link) is or how much they have influenced local musicians like myself. Much like Jesus (link), Orchestraville has not yet received the same level of recognition in their home town of Athens that they have received while touring the Midwest and east coast for these last six years. They are still considered somewhat of a "cult rock" band. It is a label that is slowly changing thanks to the new Orchestraville release entitled, "At Night, It is Particularly Lovely.
The band's latest batch of songs flaunts their indisputably solid song writing chops and patented, almost alien approach to pop melody.
|
||||||||
Comprised of guitarists Chris Forbes and Matt Duckworth, bassist Dave Pascoe and drummer Keith Hanlon, Orchestraville is a band that has been consistently ahead of it's time. Lead singer and guitarist Chris Forbes was performing "Radiohead-esque" lyrics on Athens' small stages before everyone from the yuppies to the skater-punks discovered who Radiohead was. And by "Radiohead-esque" I mean catchy lyrics that have more effort put into them than half the "Genie in a bottle, baby hit me one more time" crap on the radio today.
In 1998, the last member of Orchestraville relocated to their "new" hometown of Columbus, where musical tastes tend not to lag behind the rest of the nation by a couple of decades. Orchestraville may now officially be call themselves cow-towners, but anyone listening closely to the lyrics can tell that the band still has their roots here in Athens.
"Dog as a Catalyst" deals with the difficulties of meeting people for the first time. The lyrics were partly inspired by the well documented Athens phenomenon of college kids parading their new pets on the college green as a means to meet people. "He Believes" (soundclip) tells the tales of a few of Athens well known mentally ill street walkers like "the gum dude" who passed away few years back and "the diet Pepsi man" who still prowls the streets of Athens with his bottle of pop.
Orchestraville produces dark, melodic pop. Though the band does the occasional danceable tune, most people at an Athens Orchestraville show stand entranced by the dissonant tones with ears forward in order to hear the thought provoking lyrics. Not many bands have that power over their audience. The closest local equivalents would be the "old" version of Parker Ben Parker or Anne The Drosendoff.
"At Night, It is Particularly Lovely" is a fantastic disk and I highly recommend that every local musician listen to it at least once.
Chris Forbes - lead
vocals, guitars
Dave Pascoe - bass, vocals
Keith Hanlon - drums, percussion
Matt Duckworth - guitars
