Music CD - South San Gabriel, Centro-Matic: Dual Hawks

	Music CD: Dual Hawks Artist: South San Gabriel, Centro-Matic List Price: $16.99 Our Price: $11.75 Your Save: $ 5.24 ( 31% ) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: Misra
Average Customer Rating:
Tracks: 1. The Rat Patrol And DJ's 2. Two Seats Gold Reserved 3. Quality Strange 4. Remind Us Alive 5. Every Single Switch 6. I, The Kite 7. Strychnine, Breathless Ways 8. All Your Farewells 9. Counting The Scars 10. Twenty-Four 11. A Critical Display Of Snakes
Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0653225704828 Label: Misra Manufacturer: Misra Number Of Discs: 2 Publisher: Misra Release Date: 2008-06-03 Studio: Misra
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Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: hate to do this but Comment: been pretty disappointed with the last two centro efforts. nothing new here. all sounding the same. seem to have lost the edge since distance and clime. love you just the same and flashes had moments, but this is really actually boring. Customer Rating: Summary: Just chill... Comment: and give both discs a few good spins. Like any other Centro-matic or SSG album these are growers. Which ultimately leads to strong songs that stand the test of time. If you tell me your favorite album has three number one hits on it and that you're not sick of them DON'T buy this CD. You'll have purchased an album with music that slowly grows on you and becomes meaningful, not repetitive pop trash that melts your ears. If you are a fan, you already know what I mean. If not, I recommend starting with SSG's "The Carlton Chronicles", Centro-matic's "Fort Recovery", and Will Jonson's "Vultures Await". If you try them, I mean really give them a chance to settle in on you, and you don't like them...well, I'm sorry you broke your ears listening to Nickleback. C.B. Leflar from his wifes account ;) Customer Rating: Summary: Schitzo Hawks Flying High Over The South San Gabriel River! Comment: So Indie rocker fans everywhere can get this kind of 'elitist' attitude to their little personal 'discoveries.' You know what I mean, it's the guy at the work water cooler, that wears the hipper than though clothing and spews forth on his latest band he discovered and all their various merits. That band, maybe Centro-matic, was this indie-super-cool office dude's personal find and that somehow makes him better than you. He knows it and he's working on having you gain a good understanding of that fact as well. Then there's that 30-something soccer Mom you talk to occasionally at your kid's T-ball game. You know the one. She wears Lucky Brand Jeans shirts with the cool skull and roses design on the front and she's always listening to something you never heard of but she swears...after she found out about them, she's proud to be the first listener of the next big thing. It's like listening to R.E.M when Murmer came out, or U2 boy, Josh Joplin Group pre-Useful Music...anyone, anyone? So soccer Mom ultra younger than her age hipster wanna be touts her latest find, "South San Gabriel," and makes you feel somewhat lesser of a musical mensch because of your blank stare and unknowing fuzzy little mind. They both have something on you, their discovery of the next big thing. But fear not, because you read this review here on Amazon first you have one up on them...you know Centro-matic and South San Gabriel is really just Schitzo iterations of the same band...gifted singer-songwriter Will Johnson's split personality. Centro-matic being the rocking kinda alt country Wilco-ish pop bring down the house and the rafters too, lo-fi and oh so sweet personality. South San Gabriel (SSG) being the acoustic chamber new agey easy Sunday morning with Coffee in hand hanging easy on your North Texas front porch breezeway (you know that thing in hot climes that's designed right into your ranch house between the house and the garage) leaning back at peace with God's world older brother. Now, you know. What's missing here, isn't good music in spades, but the packaging of the two together. Alone Will Johnson made an awfully good slow SSG acoustic set and a mediocre (for him and his high standards)Centro-matic garage sounding lo-fi something is wrong with your speakers record that probably should be on vinyl-only. Will and his two sides of his soul hails from Denton-town in North Texas, that little music bastion where all things good in indie music hail out of these days. Centro-matic, The Toadies, Midlake, Bowling for Soup, Brutal Juice, and even this guy named Roy Orbison all put Denton on the map for the 2nd biggest music scene North of the Texas-Mexico border (well there is Austin you know). The SSG's disc here will put you in a druggy hazy sleep-induced state. If you aren't hanging by yourself or trying to go to sleep at night or wanting some office-time ambient music playing, this disc should be pulled out of rotation. It's a moody soundscape of a record with a few exceptions. Track 2, "Kept on the Sly," has this certain Midlake easy jam vibe about it. In fact its my and my 3 year old son's favorite dance song of late. Then there is the beautiful and beautifully-crafter CD opener, "Emma Jane," that really is breezy clean sublime. You'll find yourself listening to the SSG disc of "Dual Hawks" over-and-over for a few weeks...but be warned it's not drive to work in the morning get up and get going music. As far as the Centro-matic disc goes, its back to the lo-fi sound for Will Johnson's centrally automatic crew. "The Rat Patrol and DJ's," is every bit as catchy and urgent as Centro-matic's past standards "Calling Thermatico," or "Flashes and Cables," but unlike on Centro-matic's most excellent CD "Fort Recovery," the sound is back to the real lo-fi sound production of earlier albums which I think hurts the music in this case. The songs could be much more enjoyable if it doesn't sound like the sound producer had the record dial turned all the way up to "11." There's nothing wrong really with modern production where the music is re-created faithfully and clear. I haven't found myself listening to the Centro-matic's disc all the way through yet and I think it's largely because the sound production makes it sound like you have blown-out speakers. On Centro-matic's website, Will talks about Dual Hawks by saying, "And so here we are. It's an involved batch of music. There's a good bit to sift through, and it's against the grain at points. It begs a chunk of patience and time from its listener. But as far as I'm concerned, that's the point of independent art. It's not always convenient. It's not always tidy and easy to categorize. That's the kind of liberty we get to enjoy as a creative group of people fully in control of our own destiny. This is our ship. Why not paint it and sail it the way we want?" At some level Will, let the fans speak, the fans who believe in you and your music every step of the way...merge your two bands cherry pick your best numbers on any given recording session, clean up the production, and unloose your phenomenal music on the world! From another North Texas bubba...who caught your recent Dan's Silver Leaf concert...loved the Centro-matic part of the show man...mmw More Reviews
Editorial Reviews: On "Dual Hawks", you get to hear side-by-side the various ways Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel complement and play off each other; sort of the full-length equivalent of a split single. Catchy hooks, wiry guitars, harmonies and handclaps, splendid string and horn arrangements, and songs so well written and produced, they'll make indie rockers of lesser mettle go home and cry. RIYL: Iron And Wine, Magnolia Electric Company, Sparklehorse, Califone, Neil Young, Lambchop.