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In a time when music is in a post frame of mind, like post-punk,
post-hardcore, post-new wave and so on, Wooden Stares have
added to the post hyphenated roster with post-classic rock textures
which reel through their self-released debut album A Story
As Sad As It's Told. Produced by the band, Dwight Chalmers,
and Ryan Winkle, the rock quartet Wooden Stares from Austin,
Texas shows signs of UFO-like dynamics and Montrose-enhanced
stylizing. Though the members of Wooden Stares are far younger
than the heyday of these hard rock icons, they demonstrate classic
rock sheaths roped in contemporary vines aligned to Queens
Of The Stone Age and Built To Spill.
Wooden Stares' album rejuvenates the classic rock genre and makes
it relevant for present day generations openning up with serrated
guitar licks enshrouding "Supposed To Shine." Wooden
Stares create grumbling sonics while their rhythmic mounds gallop
and even out periodically, creasing the tempo shifts. The striking
sibilant flickers in the guitar scuffles are synonymous with classic
rock modulations as they generate an expansive gamut crenellating
the simmering drum rolls that fulminate through "I Want You
To Know." The introspective lyrics display a conversational
lingo that prompts an honest discussion with oneself: "I'm
breaking down the walls stone by stone/ It's taking me so long/
I'm breaking down the walls, the ones you help me put up for so
long."
Band members Lance Lamberth (vocals/guitars), Brad
Adams (guitars), Andrew Bauman (bass), and Will
Jennings (drums) seam jagged garage rock tremolos with echoey
dungeon-like goth rock atmospheres and classic rock volts. Their
culinary raptures also sport acoustic rock scoops like the acoustic
guitar volplanes on "It's Time To Go" bolstered by schnapps-imbued
vocals and spiraling guitar groans lured into funicles of wiggling
bass notes and low-keyed drum loops. The leaping bass slides on
"Red Metal Box" are entrenched in circling guitar frizzles
and integrated with funk-rock treatments on the vocal melody cleaving
a Modest Mouse ethos.
The guitar licks are heavy-toned, craggy and clustered. The speed
of the tempos range from gallivanting like on "Is Anyone
Left" to quasi-balladry like for "The New Slow."
The bucking guitar chords are massaged and kneaded into the pulsating
beats escarping steady rises and falls along the progressions.
The wispy vocals on the rock ballad "It's Not Worth"
swathe an Eddie Veder resonance and a Pearl Jam
sonorousness, while swilling a tenderness in the acoustic guitar
twines.
Wooden Stares' music is loaded with churlish guitar licks and
rippling rhythms. The chord segments are cubed into scurried motions,
undulating flusters, and reclining descents which wicker broad
dynamics that underscore the triathlon vigor in the vocals. Wooden
Stares assimilates classic rock slings with modern rock suspensions
and share commonalities with bands like Pearl Jam and Queens Of
The Stone Age. It's rock music that lies in the heart of today's
generation.
-Susan Frances
Track Listing:
1. Supposed To Shine
2. I Want You To Know
3. Machine
4. It's Time To Go
5. Dark Circles
6. Red Metal Box
7. Is Anyone Left
8. The New Slow
9. The Way You Force Me To Be/ I Have An Idea
10. 5/6
11. It's Not Worth
12. Let It Go
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