The Number 9s – Ta Skata
Nothing’s going to stop your favourite song from swinging, grooving, and dancing itself toward freedom. It’s just that…you’d love to be able to feel the same way every day. You’d also like to be able to get stuck inside that special groove no matter what life thinks of throwing at you. You’d like to be able to shake off the dirt whenever you land in a ditch and walk away like it was nothing.
But since it’s true that trouble has a way of finding every one, it’s also true that a crisis has a way of choking up the people that it finds defenceless. There’s no funky drummer playing in your head once that happens and no rhythm guitarist to vamp their way out of this one. The walls close up just as the body stiffens and breaths become shallow. That’s precisely the moment when you thank your lucky stars for your favourite songs and their power to lead by example.
Many of the greatest songs work with contrast. You wouldn’t know, were you not an English speaker, that “Ta Skata,” the rhythmically-conquering ska-rock track by “The Number 9s” is a song about angst, anxiety and terrible pressures. You’d have to press your ear real close and truly open up your eyes. But that’s because there’s an effervescence to this playing that makes thinking about potential tragedy almost impossible. This is the sound of a band that sounds ready to play until its legs go out and the electricity gets shut down. Is this what you need? Yes, you need to move it, work through it, and free yourself.
Flycatcher – Dissolve
There’s nobody crazy enough to think that anyone who ever starts a band will end up being a millionaire who owns a half dozen cars and a gold-plated swimming pool. Those dreams were reserved for a minority, even in rock music’s Golden Age when vinyl discs were flying off the shelves, and there were few other entertainment choices putting pressure on the industry.
So what do you get out of it? Does playing rock music change the world? Yeah, all the time. If done right and with the appropriate intentions, it certainly changes the lives of the people who dare invest their time in art. And if the songs are delivered with just enough soulfulness and a bit of sacrifice ingrained in every power chord and drum groove, it can change the lives of a few listeners who might just happen to be feeling the same way as what the musicians describe.
Flycatcher’s “Dissolve” is modern alternative rock inspired by an era where musicians were comfortable with revealing the majority of their hopes, doubts, and fears to the world. But, just like those classic grunge bands, Flycatcher has also invested an awful lot of time in creating a powerful but balanced sound. It’s a musical attack that’s sharpened in front and rounded off around the edges. It’s the great singing and the evened production that makes “Dissolve” a strong alt-rock track.
