|
press clipping
Star-Ledger
"Standing on
the Sound"
Seth Yacovone Band
(SYB)***
A trio from Vermont with strong ties to Phish - singer-guitarist Trey
Anastasio has often jammed with them, and lyricist Tom Marshall manages
them
- the Seth Yacovone Band sometimes comes off like a tight, bluesy bar
band,
but sometimes seems like an expansive, genre- defying jam band.
The first two songs, "Once There Was a Way" and
"Wage," lean heavily on the
band's blues-rock roots, making them seem like a funkier variation on
Gov't
Mule, but later tracks like "Sweat Sauce" and "Gnashing
Golgotha Footstomp
Shindig Blues" are long and unclassifiable, veering off in
unexpected musical
directions. "Except a Song" and "All" qualify as
soul-gospel, and a country
influence comes through in "Breathe Easy" and the stunning
album-closing
ballad, "Nighttime Fades," which sounds like a sequel to the
Rolling Stones'
"Wild Horses."
It's easy to see why Princeton native Marshall took an interest in this
group: Singer-songwriter- guitarist Yacovone is most ambitious as a
lyricist.
"Ain't seen my friends in 48 days/Rodents run content in a
maze," he sings,
criticizing rat-race life, in "Wage." "If tomorrow fades
into today and today
will fade into yesterday, then perhaps there's a chance that things will
be
okay," he muses in "Except a Song." As musicians, he and
his bandmates,
bassist Tom Coggio and drummer Steve Hadeka, are equally adept at every
style
they attempt, but the constant shifts in the album's sound make them
seem
more like chameleons than distinctive stylists.
This album was released on the band's own Winooski, Vt.-based record
label,
and is self-produced. It sounds like it: It feels more like a demo,
really,
than a polished studio album. It also clocks in at 74 minutes, and would
have
been stronger without some of the weaker tracks: the plodding
"Maybe Next
Year," for instance, and "360," which awkwardly merges a
funky beat with
half-spoken, story-telling lyrics. Yacovone has plenty of time to refine
his
act, though. He's only 23.
---
The band performs Thursday at the Lion's
Den, 214 Sullivan
St., N.Y. (call 212-477-2782); Friday at Water loo Village in Byram
Township
(opening for Dickey Betts & Great Southern, call 201-507-8900); Aug.
21 at
the Brighton Bar, 121 Brighton Ave., Long Branch (call 732-222-9684);
and
Aug. 22 at the Stanhope House, 45 Main St., Stanhope (call
973-347-0458). -
Jay Lustig
website
www.sethyac.com
|
