SO YOU SAY you are sick to death of banal music? Convinced nothing can revive your insatiability. Tired of lo-fi bandwagonesque and postrock math. Enter Perishable Records. Sporting the all-star cast of Phil Spirito, Brian Deck, Ben Masserella, the achingly lovely Julie Liu violin and viola; the stompable front porch of Tim Rutili; Tim Hurly, Gary Shepers and Bundy K. Brown (serving the venerable role of "coach") - you might be inclined to say this is just another REX, RED RED MEAT collaboration and you'd be right for the most part but unlike prior collab's (LOFTUS) ORSO has a different construct and feel. For one Phil Spirito wrote all of the lyrics (with "extra" words added by Rutili) and Curtis Harvey is nowhere to be found. The music is a whimsical variety of fermenting farmyard witchcraft by chicago's finest witch doctors. As a collective, their sound is as strategically harmonic as it is chock full of quirky counterpoints. Their high art seems to materialize on songs like "for lack of better words" and the elegant "Bubble Lady."

Like CALIFONE's debut, these are fully realized songs not just deconstructions. Status free. Records like these will "switch you over" more the wiser. This is a group of musicians with similar musical directions that "share" each others instruments, mind sets and suggestions. Mixing just the right ingredients to contaminate the banality of a decade of rock with a more perfect constitution.



Written: 06 jan 99
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