Pinebender
Things Are About to Get Weird
Ohio Gold
In the tradition of Ohio Gold artists thus far (C-Clamp, Dianogah) Pinebender has a healthy appreciation for and control of such notions as space, texture, tension, contrast, and detail. They also have a heap of creative ideas and the talent to pull them off while keeping things fascinatingly listenable. No surprise to find out that one of these fellows was (is?) involved in Joan of Arc.
Their ideas revolve around guitars, and lots of them [~] stretched out, noodled, worked into a dense sonic frenzy, and allowed to float in contemplation. An assortment of interesting stringed instruments are used by this trio at different times, including baritone guitar, 12 string guitar, and 16 string guitar. It’s kind of like the tonal equivalent of having a wide selection of paints.
The general tempo of things is slow to medium, and it’s a pace that’s used to their advantage as it allows them to better accent the details. Ideas are allowed time to expand as long as necessary, but never more than needed. There are definite hooks in these songs that have me nodding and singing along amidst all the solos and textural exploration that goes on. In fact, there’s not a song on here that doesn’t pull me in and have me rocking along in some fashion or another, but favorites would have to be “There’s a Bag of Weights in the Back of My Car,” “Kick It,” “Before the Calm was Lost,” and “The Depth of the Silence that was Reigning over the Veranda.” Ten solid tracks over sixty minutes, easy to get lost in.
Ohio Gold, P.O. Box 25441, Chicago, IL 60625-9998; http://www.ohiogirl.com
