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SOLACE BROTHERS
Bad Will
(California Beach Club)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Built To Spill introduced the world to this band on a recent tour. It's a good fit, but the Solace Brothers range further, and may actually have more chops. The Brothers convey edgy punk emotionalism without dropping a note, even in complex melodies and harmonies. Arrangements are tasty and unpredictable, incorporating ingenious, brassy fuzz-guitar flourishes, guttural and occasionally surprising bass lines, and arrangements tricked out with a modulation here and a tempo twist there. Highlights include "Frankie And Johnny", nine verses backed by a rumble that builds to a scream of furious tension, and the sixteen-minute trip "It Might Be Real": spectrum-wide variations on a theme with star turns by Calexico's Joey Burns and Volker Zander on cello and upright bass, respectively. Anyone interested in the Brothers' influences can sample them all in "Melody Line", which is rife with snatches of stolen licks and lyrics.

-- LINDA RAY
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Linda Ray.