Stone Unleashes Air Banjo; Hefner Dives Into Techno

3 Stars

Seconds after popping in Gordon Stone Band's debut album, Red Room, many fans will find themselves playing air banjo for the first time in their natural lives.

It is strenuous not to automatically characterize the band as Phish with a banjo. The local trio's musical diversity is evident and makes for an album that comes on strong but eventually evaporates into mediocrity.

Gordon Stone and company hardly fit within the confines of a jam band.

Don't get the wrong idea -- the members often jam -- but tracks vary from traditional bubbly bluegrass to finger-snapping banjo-fueled instrumentals and songs which border on country pop.

The trio opens the album with "Close Enough," a rambling instrumental that raises eyebrows. Stone's catchy banjo rhythms, heavy bass beats by Rudy Dauth and crafty percussion by Russ Lawton aim to please -- and they do. But it's songs like "Yesterday's Coffee" and "Major Breakdown" that really make the album.

In "Major Breakdown," the band brings in fiddler Patrick Ross for a bluegrass romp and likely the album's best song. Hands will clap, folks.

But here the bell curve peaks and begins to fall. And based on the sounds of "Too Quick To Judge," the fall is fast and steep. Cheesy vocals and a sliding steel guitar combine to sound like an ancient country-western tune -- a bad one.

The album recovers slightly near the end with average but much less annoying songs. The gloves come off in the title track, "Red Room," an unrushed, concert-worthy jam. With only drums, bass and a banjo, it's slightly limited, but it floats in a nice direction and is an interesting way to spend five minutes.

Bands with such diverse talent are faced with the nuisance of cramming an album full of songs. That said, if Gordon Stone Band made an EP with about four songs, more people in Chapel Hill would be playing air banjos. But as it is, a lot of time is spent skipping tracks on the CD.

By Aaron Freeman

Various Artists
If I Was Prince
3 Stars

Aside from the grammatically incorrect title, If I Was Prince provides an impressive underdog tribute to 10 lesser-known tunes of Prince.

If I Was Prince showcases cover songs by 10 obscure artists. Balancing a loyalty to the original versions with personal alterations and interpretations, the bands yield successful renditions more often than not.

"The Beautiful Ones," covered by Misty Dixon, has a Ben Folds feel of simple piano plus percussion backing. The breathy, plaintive quality of lead singer Jane Weaver's vocals has a timelessness that makes the song her own without altering it too far from the original.

Similarly ageless, Blue States' "Alphabet Street" sounds more like a precursor than a cover. Prince pop is transformed by a sort of '70s ethereal combination of enhanced instrumentals and casually flowing vocals.

But the album's most notable cut is "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker," covered by Broadway Project with Jeb Loy Nicholls. The percussion-driven, slightly electronic tune is perfectly complemented by a contemplative emulation of Prince's vocal styles. Active preservation of the pop origins of the tune combine with the song's otherworldly feel, which is absent from Prince's version.

Unfortunately, this pleasing plethora cannot completely conceal the album's one big plummet: "Sexy Dancer." The band, 7 Hurtz with Peaches and Bitch Lap Lap -- yes, that is its name -- basically massacres this tune by injecting bits of asinine, cutesy, spoken dialogue between poorly sung choruses. Although it opens the album, "Sexy Dancer" should by no means be considered emblematic of If I Was Prince.

Most of the artists featured in If I Was Prince have produced, through trial and error, striking covers that equal and occasionally surpass the originals. Amid interpretation and electronic manipulation, these relatively unknown but talented artists lightly retain and appreciate the sugar-puffed pop Prince sound.

By Michelle Jarboe

Hefner
Dead Media
2 Stars

The four drawings of synthesizers found in Dead Media's liner notes probably should have been an indication that this album might sound a bit like the music from "Pac-Man."

Hefner, a British indie band, is popular for its mixture of hard-hitting lyrics and varying instrumentation. The group has taken a different approach, however, with its seventh release. Instead of its usual guitar, bass, brass and drums instrumentation, Hefner opts for the techno sound with a synthesizer and drum machine.

On Dead Media, Hefner has over-experimented with the new technique. Some of its songs, such as "Trouble Kid," admittedly have a catchy beat. But its overuse of a drum machine creates a fakeness that the drummer could easily overcome.

Hefner focuses on a synthesizer melody in most of its songs, giving the album a bad '80s techno feel. Take, for instance, the title track, "Dead Media." The repetitious synthesizer overshadows the more lyrical melodies of the song, making it hard to focus on vocalist Darren Hayman's soothing words.

Hayman's consistently eye-opening lyrics and melodies bring out the true nature of Hefner. On "China Crisis" Hayman sings, "The books from the libraries/They tell us what to feel, how to love and when to heal." Here the melody shines because Hefner uses soft percussion and beautifully orchestrated guitar and violin, further illustrating the harmful effects of its synthesizer because of its absence on the track.

Showing the band's true potential, the mellow "Alan Bean" seems to strike an agreement between the synthesizer and the melody. Based on the true story of the forgotten fourth man on the moon, the song balances electronic sounds with Hayman's singing to produce a sound that the rest of the album regretfully lacks. The right amount of spacey electronic sounds complement the soothing but strong melody in the track.

But for now, Hefner is stuck playing games on Dead Media, proving sometimes you really can judge an album by its cover.

By Shellie Byrum