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You've Been Robbed
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| Brian Dukes, Up & Coming Weekly, Feb. 23, 2005 |
February 23, 2005 |
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If Charlie Kaufman were an indie rocker or in an indie rock band, he'd be the fifth man for Robbers On High Street. The New York-based band will release their debut CD, scheduled for next month, Tree City - a 13-track testimonial to what can happen when great songwriting comes together with energetic performances and insightful lyrics.
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Composed of Ben Trokan, lead vocals, guitarist; Steve Mercado, guitarist; Jeremy Phillips, bassist; and Tomer Danan, drummer, Robbers On High Street have a sound and style that fits right into that niche between The Strokes and The Killers. However, as their name may imply, if The Strokes and The Killers were to get in a tug-of-war, Robbers On High Street would steal the rope and write a tongue-in-cheek tune about it all.
In all actuality, these guys are not thieves, and their sound is all their own. It's amazing that they can draw comparisons to the best of the "The" bands so early in their career. But, that doesn't mean in any way that they are limited to the same confines that constrain all those "The" bands. In fact, Robbers have an appeal that is found in the sheer variety of their sound. One moment Tree City is a foot-stompin' rock dancer, and the next it's an instrumental thought-provoker; one moment a guitar-driven rock fest, the next a power ballad. It's good stuff that keeps you on your toes and interested throughout the entire length of the album.
Featuring a wide array of instrumentation to compliment its many sonic faces, Robbers spare no effort on excellence with Tree City. Featuring roaring pianos and triumphant horns, to name a few, Tree City is filled with a plethora of studio touches that put a nicely-tuned shine to the CD. The album isn't over-engineered, however, and it has a largely organic feel to it, very similar to some of The Beatles' work - when you could hear Paul and John talking in the background between tracks. It's a personal touch that doesn't happen often, but is just right.
Among the 13 tracks there are several favorites of mine. Hands down, though, "Spanish Teeth," the album's opener, is my top choice because it draws you in with its guitar and piano and has tongue-in-cheek lyrics like "When the fit hit the shan." It's almost the embodiment of the entire album all at once: great writing, energy, instrumentation and a beat you can get with. Other memorable tracks include "Japanese Girls" and "Descender," a hauntingly eerie track that shows a deeper, almost darker side to the Robbers. Also, you should check out the one-two punch of "Love Underground" and "Dig The Lightning." The tracks are offered up back to back and really form the heart of the album.
Without stealing anything from anyone, Robbers On High Street have pilfered the hearts and minds of music lovers in the Five Boroughs and beyond. Watch for their CD in March and see them live at the Duke Coffee House March 9.
Music News
I like Mike Sarisky, owner and operator of Jester's Pub. Along with his dedicated staff and wife, Claudia, Mike has created a home for a lot of different local bands - and what's better is that Jester's isn't just the home of metal bands or alt rock bands, but all of them. It's a diversity of sound that Sarisky keeps coming every week. A quick look at the next set of Jester's shows reveals all you need to know. Wednesday, Feb. 23: S.O.C., DECAPO, Monday In London, Rookie Of The Year, Indianapolis. It's an alt-rock, indie kind of night. I've seen S.O.C. and Rookie Of The Year live, so you'll be in for a treat. Moving on, Friday, Feb. 25 will showcase national acts Cryptopsy, Misery Index, Cattle Decapitation and Autumn Offering, who will perform with special guests Heretics Fork. Here, you can see, Sarisky switches gears into metal mode and if you're a fan of the heavier, darker, aggressive side of rock, then you'll be sorry if you missed this show. Finally, on Saturday, Feb. 26, Jester's will play host to Nephilym, All She Wrote, Phoenix Down, and Unspoken. You can't beat the variety here with a bat, folks.
"We've got emo, new metal, death metal ... we've got it all," said Sarisky, who took time out of his busy booking schedule to speak with me. "I hate it when Jester's gets labeled or tagged as just playing one style of music."
For Sarisky and crew, every weekend is a new challenge. "We're always trying to outdo the last idea, the last show, the last performance," he said. "There's no time to rest on your success. You have to continually improve."
While Jester's may have one of the best things going, they're not the only ones. Be sure to check out what's going on all over Fayetteville's diverse music scene, and support it when and where you can.
Something I Think I Think
I'm outright ripping this column idea from SI sportswriter Peter King, but it's a good one, and I'm sure he won't mind. Here is something I think I think about the local music scene.
In a convoluted way, our music scene needs to model itself after major professional sports, i.e. the NFL. I've been hearing a lot on radio lately about how hockey is dead, for the moment, because it's lost "the casual fan." Now, "the casual fan" is defined as someone who isn't a diehard, love em and never leave em, kind of fan. In order for a sports league to grow, it must be able to attract the passing interest of those people who may watch a game or two and buy a T-shirt and cap. The NFL would never survive if it catered only to those guys in Green Bay that wear no shirts in freezing weather.
Music is like this too, I think. In order for the local scene to really grow, it's got to attract music fans from all over the place, not just cater to the particular fans of one genre or another. For instance, a few years ago Jimmy Keefe helped put together a Local-Palooza of sorts, where he brought out at least a dozen bands to the Soccer complex at Methodist College. The lineup was incredible, as I recall, with a very diverse number of groups slated to play. The event, as a whole, was a failure, however. The reason being ... each band brought "their" fans, and "their" fans were the only ones watching "their" shows. When that band was done, they'd take "their" fans and go. Sure, each band may bring 150 people, but if none of them are hanging around to watch other bands, what's the point?
I've heard the same argument made by Morris Cardenas and Keith Owens - mutual support is needed if the local scene is ever going to grow. Right now, musically, the scene's parts are greater than its whole, and not the other way around, which is what it needs to be. Outsiders may go to Gotham Blues one night or Good Times or Louie's and think "Wow, Fayetteville has a kickin' jazz and blues scene," and they'd be right. The problem is that what they aren't saying is "Wow, Fayetteville has a great music scene."
I think that if there was some common mechanism to foster cooperation between the bands and venues, that this could only help the local scene. I'm not suggesting anything like a union, God no, but some form of a coalition that, at the very least, would work to insure that "the word" gets out about all the great music and bands we have here.
But that's just me. In the meantime, tune in to Rock 103 and WFSS 91.9 local radio.
CD REVIEW
WHO: Robbers On High Street
TITLE: Tree City
LABEL: Scratchie/New Line
GENRE: Indie Pop
RATING: ****1/2 (out of 5)
WEB: robbersonhighstreet.com
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