GET A FREE CD!Folk-influenced IRE/UK Rock: Cerveris' Dogeared

Cerveris hears Teenage Fanclub who heard Big Star who heard the Byrds.

This little pocket of influence and similarities lands in the Folk-influenced IRE/UK Rock section of the Spectrum. I’m not sure this position is defensible, since Teenage Fanclub are the only ones from the British Isles. However, while the Byrds were heralded as the America Beatles, I’ve always associated their sound with England. Yes, it’s California and hippies and folky and all of that, but there’s a timidity, an air that finds more expression in Britpop than in American rock today. Even when it rocks, there’s a fragility to it, in voice, harmonies, acoustic overtones, the pop sound outweighing the rock.

Follow your way through history and musical influences to land at the feet of Michael Cerveris, Broadway musical actor and musician. His solo album, Dogeared, pays homage to a range of artists, but especially due to his friendship/collaboration with Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake, I find the comparisons to the Fannies to be foremost in the mix.

In the Byrds-influenced area, there’s a mix of artists who should be on that side of the Atlantic and others who don’t. It’s quite a little pocket in which Cerveris finds himself—the more folky, singer-songwriters (James Yorkston, Elliot Smith, Beth Orton, Duncan Sheik), the brooding but more wide-ranging rock of American Music Club, the most direct Byrds-influenced (Teenage Fanclub, Big Star, the Thorns), and then it spills back into the more natural folk-influenced English Rock sounds of the Sundays, G.W. McClennan (Go-Betweens), etc.

However, before you go thinking that Cerveris’ Dogeared has got that Byrds-influence sound cornered like a pigeon in its hole, watch how that dog’s prey flies out of its grasp. In just the first three tracks, it shakes off one comparison only to latch onto a whole slew of others. Track #1: “Crosshill” presents deep, shoegazer vocals on a duet with Norman Blake over an upbeat acoustic folk guitar. You’re well within Teenage Fanclub territory, although there’s been some gerrymandering. Track #2: “Disconnect” continues the shoegazing along with the guitar, but now there’s a low-tech, slow electronica beat and strings on the bridge/chorus. Watch yourself; Cerveris is slippery. Track #3: “SPCA” completes the Trifecta, three different horses running out of the starting gate. “SPCA” is punk/garage/indie rock with help from Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss; their vocals adding a whole new dimension.

The diversity comes partly from Cerveris’ wide-ranging talents and interests, but combine that with what his friends bring to the project, and you’ve got a helluva interesting record. Besides Sleater-Kinney’s Tucker and Weiss, the cast of Cerveris’ musical includes: Ken Stringfellow (Posies, R.E.M.), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Laura Cantrell, Norman Blake (Teenage Fan Club), Jeremy Chatzky (They Might Be Giants), Kevin March (Guided by Voices, Dambuilders), Anders Parker (Varnaline, Space Needle), Lara Gray (Luna, Ben Lee), Joe McGinty (Psychedelic Furs), strings arranger David Arnold (Bjork), Alex Lutes (Nightnurse, Retriever), Claudia Chopek and Leah Coloff. This is topped off by album mixing by Nick Brine (Oasis, Stone Roses).

On one track, the collaboration worked in a way not usually heard—a cover song done together with another artist who also recorded a cover of that same song. Cerveris records Robert McCreedy’s (Volebeats) “Two Seconds” with Laura Cantrell, who has also released a cover version of the song. The result is one of the tunes that puts me most in mind of James Yorkston & the Athletes’ Moving Up Country, a gathering of friends in the living room singing into the wee hours of the morning.

“Dog Eared” brings out the California side of the Byrds inspiration, a perfect tune for flying down Highway 1 along the coast, blazing in its acoustic drive but with 60’s harmonies on the vocals. The song ends with guest vocals from Cerveris’ dog, Gibson (whom he got from the SPCA).

The album officially ends with “Golden,” a full wash of anthemic guitars more common in something from Coldplay. Then it all falls away to leave Cerveris alone in his room with his acoustic. Like a passing truck in the street, the full anthemic wash returns for a chorus of sorts, then that truck passes down the block.

On the first of two bonus/hidden tracks, “Eleven,” the keyboard beginning reminds me of the hesitating, ominous, 80’s keyboard on Midnight Oil’s “Shipyards of New Zealand” (Red Sails in the Sunset).

There’s my attempt at following that unholed pigeon, but I haven’t even mentioned some other sounds coming through: Elliot Smith’s presence is quite strong here. Having been guitarist/vocalist on the “Dog and Pony Show” Tour for Bob Mould, hard-driving acoustics similar to Mould’s style show up frequently. The opening guitars on “SPCA” remind me of 54-40’s more avant-garde beginnings on Selection. And of course with all of this discussion about Big Star, you can’t help but thinking that the Replacements’ “Alex Chilton” (Pleased to Meet Me) has something in common with these odes to the Big Star/Teenage Fanclub sound.

WIN A CD!
There are 2 copies of Dogeared available through Music Spectrum SASE. Mail in your SASE right away for your chance to get Cerveris’ album plus 2 other CDs.
U.S. readers click here.
Canadian readers click here.

Thanks to Cerveris and Low Heat Records for the review copy and the giveaway CDs.


Teenage Fanclub Cliffs Notes
For a great collection of Teenage Fanclub songs, pick up the recently released Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds: A Shortcut to Teenage Fanclub. Of course, as a greatest hits collection, it doesn’t preserve the album order. However, this CD is nicely balanced, letting the rockier tracks emerge from the more laid back tunes. There’s an emotional flow not found on many hits collections. If you’re without any Fannies, here’s an easy way to get started. Thanks to Jetset Records for the review copy.


Cerveris-Collaborator: Anders Parker
Out this fall (October 19) on Baryon Records is Tell It to the Dust by Varnaline’s Anders Parker. Parker contributes guitars, percussion, and background vocals on four tracks from Cerveris’ project. His solo album fits comfortably in the company of Jay Farrar, Jason Walker & the Last Drinks, and Adam Masterson, with perhaps a little more of the pop sounds of Will Kimbrough. Baryon Records is the new formed label of producer John Angello. The premiere release features the band Fireworks Go Up. That and the label’s second release, a CD by bluesman Michael Powers, will be reviewed here in the next couple of weeks. Thanks to Anders Parker and Baryon Records for the review copies.