Monday, August 29, 2005

CD Review: The Get Quick - How The Story Goes


You might call it laziness on my part, but I prefer to call it ripping the veil off the inner machinations of rock and roll marketing. What I'm referring to is that this review is going to consist primarily of the promotional literature that came with the CD. I know it may come as a surprise that persons reviewing a disc get the material free, but it can't be much of a shock in this post-modern topsy turvy world. You often get a publicity kit with the release containing information about the band, the new album, and possibly a photo. Sometime the hyperbole is ridiculous and sometimes the data is helpful. Writers will often steal a line here or there (at least I do) and surely that is to be expected. But to copy an entire promo sheet has always been out of the question for me, at least until now. Why? Because whoever wrote it got it right concerning The Get Quick's Rainbow Quartz debut: How The Story Goes. My comments will be in the brackets and the promo info in bold, but overall I could not possibly do the band any more justice than the story that follows:

The Get Quick are a rock and roll outfit from Philadelphia, PA.

How The Story Goes is their first album for Rainbow Quartz.

Instead of using their budget to cozy down in a local studio for a few weeks, they elected to go to New York and drop the wad on three days at Sear Sound, a premiere studio with impeccably maintained vintage gear where such arbiters of sonic excellence as Phil Ramone, Steve Lillywhite, Sir Paul McCartney, and Monster Magnet
[what the hey...Monster Magnet?] have worked. The boys were eager to utilize the Fairchild limiters from Abby Road and the same Neumann microphones that had captured some of the greatest recorded tones of all time. With producer Michael Musmanno (Lilys, Icarus Line) riding the faders on the Neve 8038 Custom Console, they managed to create an album that Urge Overkill and ELO would be proud of.

Rock-solid tracks that pop with Magical Mystery Tour-style overdubs. Great vocals and big beat drums are underpinned by throbbing spot-on bass and blown apart by supercharged buzzsaw guitar. There are saxophones and strings, harpsichords and squealing moogs [the squealing moogs made my youngest daughter think about monsters which caused her to give the album a thumbs down], but most important are the songs themselves.

These are melodies discovered in the soft underbelly of consciousness
[this sentence makes me think about Blue Oyster Cult]. These are songs composed and arranged with the skill of a master carpenter [this sentence evokes Jesus]. These are performances executed with the quick flashes of inspiration that breed innovation. [This sentence confuses me a little - does it mean the quick flashes inspired the band to innovate or will the performances on the album cause others to innovate?]

This is How The Story Goes.

That's as succinct and accurate promo sheet as I've ever seen. How The Story Goes is a fast paced delight full of fun rock and roll echoing the past filtered through the post modern audio speakers of today. My own favorite track is "New Plimsoles", but there are plenty of plums to be plucked to satisfy most everybody's idea of pudding. So believe the record company's blurb about The Get Quick. Rainbow Quartz will rarely lead you astray.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The chorus on New Plimsouls is great. A 60's garage classic with some less-than-stellar early 80s new wave guitar. At first listen I liked this song best but for the long haul I think I like 'Seem' better.