Centro-matic and South San Gabriel - Dual Hawks

Do I really have to tell you that this is a good record? Centro-matic have proven to be an unstoppable force in recent years, sort of a Denton Guided By Voices with better discretion as regards to numbers of records released per year. They do keep busy for a bunch of drunks. Will Johnson has found the time to record solo records, Matt Pence has The Echo Lab and multi-instrumentalist threat Scott Danborn has toured with Slobberbone and a bunch of other projects. I'm not sure what Mark does outside of these bands, but I'm sure he's no slacker.

Centro-matic started as a side-project for Johnson, but soon took a life of its own. There was always a duality to his work. Initially the louder and softer material was meted between seperate releases, as evinced by the Navigational and The Static vs. The Strings Vol 1 records, but recent years have found them subdivided further, with the quieter more melancholic fare taking the form of sister band South San Gabriel. 

Centro-matic takes the baton for the louder fare. Their hawk of the duo is my favorite of the two on this dual release.  The eleven songs are some of the best Centro has released and that sure is saying something. It reminds me of the Jay Bennett (read: good) Wilco era. How Tweedy can have a band that mind-numbingly boring with Nels Cline and Glenn Kotche in the fold is a staggering accomplishment. Maybe it's the lack of Obama mania, but Centro-matic have released a record that trounces all over that Chicago franchises last three record.  From the opening  'the rat patrol and djs' to the closing 'a critical display of snakes' it is hook after hook. Trust me, you need this record. Maybe sell an Arcade Fire record or two.

Now South San Gabriel I'm a little more ambivalent about. South San Gabriel tends to have more guests and be that much more slow and depressing. That's not a bad thing. I saw them for the first time opening up the American Music Club reunion shows and they are definitely cut from the same cloth. With the new Mark and Vudi AMC, SSG might be able to stand a chance, but they are no Engine or California era AMC. The material is good, and there's the same Centro underpinning to remind you that the bands are two sides of the same coin, but it falls a little short for me. It's better than most of the stuff your find on your average Paste sampler. It's no Dakota Suite, but it's also better than the last AMC record, so perhaps some standings need to be recalculated. 

You get both records when you buy Dual Hawks, so there's no sense splitting hairs. There is a Saturday Night/Sunday Morning dichotomy between the two records and I'm not talking the Counting Crows record. I could (and, I guess, now will) refer to the Ralph Stanley record Adam ripped the title off from. Stanley and the boys played the hell out of a lot of barn dances, but were in church on time the next day. South San Gabriel seems more steeped in regret than repentance, but I'm sure there's enough of both to go around. Personally, I would buy Dual Hawks for Centro-matic and stay for the South San Gabriel. You can acquire the means to do both here. Centro and SSG are wrapping up live dates behind Dual Hawks, but Will is coming through town next month for a solo show with Chris Brokaw. Keep up on that and all of the other going on in their dual worlds here. If you'd like to be their internet friend, do it here, but after you pick up Dual Hawks.

R

Two Cow Garage - Speaking In Cursive

Things are well in the world. There have been a slew of great releases lately, but few have been more exciting for this shut-in than the new Two Cow Garage record. It's called Speaking In Cursive and it's coming out via Virgil Dickerson and the good folk of Suburban Home (and the Vinyl Collective, if you are so enamored of the concentric spiral groove). I just got the pre-order a day or so ago, complete with buttons and beer coozie. Other than ears, what more do you need?

Speaking In Cursive marks the first Two Cow record without original drummer/Jesus doppelganger/God Of Thunder who lives and walks among us: Dustin Harigle. While Two Cow are hardly The Who, his drums were a big part of their live show. The gents seem to have found a replacement, and a full-time keyboard dude, since and expanded their arrangements accordingly. Don't expect a Marillion record or anything, but the move to a five-piece and mentoring by Brent Best (The Drams, Slobberbone) and Matt Pence (Centro-matic) has made for a bigger (and better) Five Cow sound.

Maybe you saw the This Is American Music tour last year with Glossary, The Drams, Grand Champeen and Two Cow? If you did, you probably heard some of the songs that have finally been magnetized on Speaking In Cursive, most notably Micah's stellar new Skinny Legged Girl. If that was the only track on the record, I would still put it in my top ten for the year. Lucky for us, it's not and the other dozen or so tracks are pretty damn good. Micah's got the lion's share of the tracks, but Shane and his baritone weigh in with a couple of numbers that are rapidly becoming my favorites.

And hopefully yours, too. They've cancelled more shows in NYC than they've played, but I'm looking forward to seeing them at DC's in Hoboken on 10/24. I've flown out to a handful of shows that historically would be stymied by amp failure or other enviornmental issues, but when they overcome the rock inertia, those boys tear it up live. I hear Chris Flint (manager and occasional guitarist) is out with them, so it's a fully-functioning death star. You really need to see them. Just watch out for the flying headstocks. The record's not out until 10/21, but I believe you can still snag the pre-order here. Buy it even if you don't need the buttons or the coozie.

R