The Treats are a power trio hailing from right here in Madison. Reservoir Tales is the band's sophomore effort and it mysteriously appeared in my mailbox over the weekend. Unsolicited but quite welcome.
Formed at the tail end of the last millennium, the group features brothers Andrew and Don Isham on guitar and percussion, respectively, with Tim Payne on bass. Andrew provides lead vocals but everyone contributes their voices. The term "power trio" conjures up Cream to my mind and they're not a wholly bad starting point because Reservoir Tales has plenty of bluesy riffing and the occasional nod to psychedelia. And the sonic improvement here over their debut album, Paint Your Blood (2004) means that Don's drums don't sound like Ginger Baker's as they did on that album, i.e. – recorded in a cardboard box. The sound here is expansive with each member given plenty of breathing room yet it can't be accused of being overly-polished. Lo-fi garage rock aesthetics have perhaps been transmogrified into medium-fi but the rawness and immediacy remain.
The chunky riffing on songs like the opener, "Second Hand Reserve", may bring The White Stripes to mind but, when "Cuchillo" starts south of the border only to speed north and come crashing into a finale of Blue Cheer pandemonium, it beggars comparison. "Ever Been Down" is perhaps as close to the blues as a group of engineering majors can get with its neo-boogie that gives the North Mississippi All-Stars a run for their money.
Reservoir Tales, like its predecessor, is committed to dynamics. Just as with Jethro Tull's Aqualung, in between the riff-laden heavier tunes are mostly acoustic ditties. "Blind and Undying" is a comforting bit of ragged acoustic pop that is colored with sitar. Andrew Isham won't go down as the heir to Ravi Shankar's legacy but it's effective and the short raga jam which closes the song pays nice tribute to late 1960s psychedelia. If lullabies could have lines like "You'll do what it is that killed you", then I suppose "Without a Word" would indeed be one. Instead the gently plucked acoustic evokes Genesis from their brief pastoral period with such pieces as "Dusk".
While it's easy to spot a nod here and a stolen riff there, Reservoir Tales comes off, not as derivative, but as a billet-doux to great rock music through the ages. The brothers Isham and Mr. Payne are solid players. And from the short, incisive phrases on "Cuchillo" to the manic screaming on "Like an Animal", Andrew has a great rock voice. My favorite song at the moment is "Eve's Playground" which has a surf rock beat underneath but is all Link Wray on top. Even the vocals aren't that far removed from what Wray did on songs like his cover of "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby". When Andrew sings "You never lick my wounds when I've been cut", you know he means it. I'm not sure what that means, but I believe him just the same. It is probably the catchiest rock song anyone in Madison has recorded since Mad Trucker Gone Mad committed "Cows in the Pasture" to CD.
Reservoir Tales will be released on 7 September with a CD release show to follow that evening at the King Club. Joining them will be two other great local bands - Cash Box Kings and The Selfish Gene.
No comments:
Post a Comment