POWERFUL THREE-WAY: Sidecar Radio's construction really clicks. |
| Wave Principle | Released by Sidecar Radio | on Labor Day Records | at the Big Easy, in Portland | April 11, at 5 pm (all ages) + 9 pm (21+) |
Three-piece rock bands are so much more interesting when the bass player and drummer aren’t just sidekicks for a big-time frontman/guitarist. They’re elegant, really, just what’s needed and no more. Bands like Nirvana and the Police are so important partly because they took the classic-rock form created by the Beatles and Rolling Stones and defrocked it (do kids nowadays even know Dave Grohl was in Nirvana? I doubt it. It’s been almost 15 years since Cobain died).We’re lucky to have some great three-pieces in Portland, Ogre, the Leftovers, and Paranoid Social Club (I think they’re back in business) among them. Sidecar Radio might be the best local argument for the form, though. They’re not necessarily the best of those bands (nor would I dare to rank those four), but something about their construction just completely clicks, especially as evidenced on their new five-song Wave Principle EP, the second take on a short-form release (Static’s the other) since 2005’s Soundtrack from the Upside.
Frontman Christian Hayes’s delivery has evolved a kind of accent, like Joe Strummer after 25 years in Southern California. He can be quick and drawn out in equal measure, but is most distinctive when he power-slurs through syllables like he’s tickling the speed of playback or there’s a little gum in the gears. Alternately, his guitar playing is subtle, sometimes carrying through choruses with three or four big strums. The rhythm section — Corey Tibbets on bass, Jason Stewart on drums — is similarly both lyrical and precise, with Tibbets often driving the melody of the verses while Stewart coaxes the listener through bridges.
The result is a satisfying balance of influence and plenty of nuance to listen for. This is a loud and fun band, but still deserves time in the headphones — the good ones.
First and foremost, “When the Easy Gets So Hard” is one of the 10 best songs any band has put out in Portland in the nine years I’ve been listening. When I put out my 200 best local songs of the 2000s roughly 20 months from now (I’ll probably do that; I’m kind of working on it already), you’ll appreciate what a compliment that is. Hayes and an acoustic guitar open, enchanting from the beginning with the song’s central hook, the title’s last word caressed by Hayes as he drops down a nice fifth. Then the band pop into a (Robbin’ the Hood era) Sublime-style (Hayes’s vocals are even a little lo-fi, in that you can hear the room) verse that quickly moves into a big, big chorus, with huge singalong potential, the opening bit reimagined.
Like any good songwriter, Hayes knows what to do with a hook when he’s written it, echoing it out for the bridge, bringing it back for a final turn as a high harmony. At 3:26, it’s a song that you pretty much have to play again immediately, and reminds me of the drinks you get overseas, where they actually measure the ounce and give you one ice cube. It’s exactly what you want, but not quite enough of it. So you have nine of them.
This view of life as lived with the underbelly pervades the EP. “Smoke Signals” finds the band “looking overhead/Gravity is dead” with two disconcerting repeated notes from the guitar and needling cymbals, then pounding you over the head with a chorus that gets pretty raucous: “Smoke signals surround/I never read them at all.” It’s here in the disc’s first song, too, that you appreciate the mix orchestrated by Shaun Michaud. The vocals are just slightly below where you might expect them, allowing the bass and drums reflected spotlight.
And I love how the drums are mic’d in the closer, “Voicebox,” another possibility for the single you should be hearing on WCYY by now. In the bridge, you hear great rolls on the snare from Stewart, downright military, and thus appropriately threatening — “Do you believe in the violence pointed at your head?” — but it sounds like the snare is 10 feet away and the cymbals and toms are right on top of you, allowing that military vibe to be “other” than the band. Really nice.
The details matter here. Hayes, Tibbets, and Stewart each pull so much weight that their bandmates never feel a burden and can therefore focus on executing their parts of the whole. It’s artful. And fun to listen to.
On the Web
www.sidecarradio.com
Sam Pfeifle can be reached at sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com.
