ARTiST: Sam Champion
ALBUM: Heavenly Bender
BiTRATE: 172kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: North Street
GENRE: Rock
SiZE: 51.45 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 38min 59sec total
RiP DATE: 2008-10-04
STORE DATE: 2008-09-16
Track List:
--------
01. Like a Secret 3:20
02. Be Mine Everyone 3:18
03. Heavenly Bender 3:01
04. You Can't Stop 3:23
05. Space Heater 0:55
06. We Will Awaken 4:50
07. Dead Moon 3:27
08. Direct 3:20
09. Jealous Shakes 3:22
10. There Was a Doubt 2:50
11. Lorraine 4:02
12. Commitments 3:11
Release Notes:
--------
"Nothing is sacred, nothing gets you high anymore." Sam Champion
singer/guitarist Noah Chernin repeatedly deadpanned those words on his Brooklyn
indie rock outfit's debut full-length, 2004's Slow Rewind, a rightfully
overlooked slacker-rock workout that drew less favorable comparisons to Pavement
than did fellow neo-classicists Tapes 'N Tapes just a few months later. Not many
people outside of New York really tasted Sam Champion's tapes. So given the
subsequent critical discussion on whether or not it was too soon to revive that
particular aesthetic, it seems like they were right on time-- though just as
short on fresh ideas.
In the two or three years Heavenly Bender has taken to incubate, Sam Champion
have taken to expanding their sound to recall more than the wry half-smiles and
meanderings of Pavement. They've dirtied their jeans, studied the moves of Crazy
Horse, grown fuses for detonating, and become a live band that make believers
out of non-believers-- a feeling that has translated well to record here.
Opening stretches as fruitful or sweet are difficult to come by. "Like a Secret"
weds ten sheets of XTC-brand sparkle to bungee guitar lines that morph from
monkey bars to white squall in the course of only three minutes. "Be Mine
Everyone" is a tried-and-true roadhouse burner that lives and dies by the
delicious, scuzzbucket riff that drives it. While Chernin's still a near-dead
ringer for Stephen Malkmus at times, his delivery-- despite shaggy
obfuscations-- has found venom that matches the teeth-gnashing of the rhythm
section (Jack Dolgen and Ryan Thornton) behind him. That leadoff's pace
counteracts well the droll, stubbornly mid-tempo work that weighed them down
previously. It also signals more: they've become a band that's broken loose
zigzagging through more decades than just one, playing cards with the Zombies as
often as the Pixies. No frills, less fuss.
But as clear as that opening switch to afterburners rings, much of Heavenly
Bender sounds too-worn in at times, hooks still more familiar than barbed.
Pitchfork's Ian Cohen noted recently in his review of Dr. Dog's latest that the
album's viscosity allowed it to slide in one ear and out the other with ease.
It's a problem that riddles the flatter corners of this record, particularly
non-descript closer "Commitments". Anyone that grew up teething on grunge or
classic rock can appreciate what's been done here, but will they come back to
it? Still, cuts like the gorgeous, string-laden "Lorraine" or "We Will Awaken"
and its combustive, Youngian coda are just as indicative of the band's growth.
In the latter, what begins as a drizzly shuffle of piano and guitar turns into a
werewolf of a song. It sits pretty in the middle of an album marred not by any
shortage of riffage (see: "Jealous Shakes"), but stands out as a song you could
scribble Sam Champion's name on and not someone else's.