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Issue
#78
Sept. '05
The first few times I
saw The
Bret Logan Band I didn’t quite fully realize what
was actually going on. Not
easily accessible, I later learned, was the gift of this unique band.
In order to understand
and appreciate the sound that flowed from this
unit, it took a bit of a history lesson for me. Bret
Logan founded the band Jellyshirts in
the early 90’s, their 1st
CD, Rays
To The Sun,
was released in 1995, the follow-up, 1998’s Outside,
saw an extremely limited release
before Jellyshirts were dismantled.
Bret Logan then
recruited others to form The Bret Logan Band.
While there have been a
couple of “novelty” BLB
releases, Is It Real? marks their 1st
“Official” release, which comes one year after the
dissolution of The Bret Logan Band,
and the reformation of Jellyshirts.
Got all that?
Well, it was about a
year after being introduced to The Bret Logan
Band that I was turned onto Rays To
The Sun by Jellyshirts a
Byrds/Velvet Undergound mellow yet
intense groove that grabbed and possessed me. After fully digesting
this remarkable
achievement, I found myself quite literally entranced by The
Bret Logan Band. Several years later, while
riding the resurrection of Jellyshirts,
and
preparing for the release of Is It Real?
by The Bret Logan Band, Bret
offered this bit of
wisdom: “There's a vineyard, Jellyshirts and Bret
Logan Band are two varieties of grape. Same
general landscape, but different chemistry, different wines.”
To that I’ll add,
“similar in flavor, yet distinct in taste.”
Is It Real? will instantly be compared to
The
Smiths, especially with Bret Logan’s
Morrissey-esque vocals. While I too quote the similarity, I for one was
never a Smiths,
nor Morrissey fan. The Smiths down-trodden pre-goth feel never did it
for me, yet while
the BLB tightrope walks the radius
of that
sound, it instantly uplifts me within the down-low vibe. Maybe that is
the appeal, a soft,
low flowing stream that builds into the intensity of river rapids
racing to the sea, which
upon spilling violently into the ocean, lay calmly while reflecting on
the struggles of
the journey.
Conveying
this are 16 tracks of
beautiful pick and soar rock infused with studio multi-tracking,
looping, and Bret Logan’s
vocals. Vocals that at times
become an instrument unto themselves: light and airy, invoking
inflection where needed,
and transforming and transmitting an overall setting for each piece at
the turn of a note.
Using “La’s”
and “Ah’s”
as notes played up and down the
scales to reach out, and even further, to reach in, to completely
engulf our being within
the sound and navigate us across the abyss that the rest of the band is
so perfectly
creating for the journey.
We
go no further than the opener China
Rain.
Harmonic notes picked as lovely and as effectively as chords flow from Bret Logan and Jessica
Brauner’s lead guitars. While Nick
Appleby’s subdued drums usher in Wil
Cunningham’s building, lingering bass, it
is Appleby’s tape loop effects that give the added dimension
to this song off lost
love. Lost, due to the fact that the protagonist failed to reveal his
true self to the now
gone woman. All the while, the Bret Logan Band
uses this platform to reveal their true selves to us. Then, on track 2,
Closer To Thee,
they take it up a notch.
Dig the lowbrow, goth vibe done it such tight structure that you
can’t help but be
sucked into an eddy of torrential heartbreak. Overblown double tracked
chords drench our
emotions with a Psychedelic Furs style beautiful chaos. Using a hooked
chorus of “La La La La La’s”
that snap off the
tongue and take us soaring along on a religious journey until we
can’t help to feel
exhilarated enough to think “Halleluiah.”
Is It Real? continues on with many more
near
religious musical moments, from the relentless double-tempo drum march
and dual harmonic
guitar chord strumming candor of Place In The
Sun to
the rain dreary Smashing Pumpkins lumbering giant sound that tip toes
through the verses
of I Follow
You. BLB even
cops some great riffs
from others, most notably, the opening of It’s All Right finds BLB taking Tom Petty’s American
Girl hook and
making it their own while taking it over the top in a Velvet
Underground/Jellyshirts romp. Do
You Want
To Dance features another Smashing Pumpkins sound,
yet this time as if playing
Yes’ Starship Trooper. In The Lake again evokes early
Tom Petty
& The Heartbreakers playing R.E.M. with an up-tempo Traffic
feel that lays itself out
in a very Dylan and The Band style jam.
One
of the most defining elements
of this album is Sea Hands,
a song that sets sail over a
wall of vocal f/x Ah’s that ride the guitar notes tumbling
and spilling into our
ears. Bret Logan’s vocals
pour forth and
wash over us as the musical level begins to rise – so too
does Bret’s lead guitar
notes, soaring through
pedals that one can only guess exist – But of course, exist
they do. Bret is known for altering
his equipment to create
and achieve the sound he wants for any particular piece, and he does so
here, and not only
with his guitar, but with his vocals as well. When all is said and
done, it is the amazing
beauty of Bret’s altered
guitar images
which are backlit by what pours forth by the rest of the band, in a
magnificent testament
equal to that of hauling a musical tidal wave across the vast reaches
and coming to the
other side with a tranquility that delivers us into a blithering pool
of happiness.
While
sidestepping many more
songs that I just have way too much to comment about, I begin to wrap
this up by saying,
to overlook the religious significance of this disc would be foolish.
While not directly
preaching salvation through any organized effort Bret
Logan uses the Band as a vehicle to spread the beauty of love
through the passion and
joy of music, and nothing says it better than Joy
– Simply Joyous!! I love this song, saturated in sound, it
delivers a feel that is
nothing short of bliss. It travels into dark (yet uplifting)
psychedelica and dances with
a massive flute (or flutish sound) in pure Joy, while BLB
is spreading
even more Joy in a cacophony of delightful playing. You can tell each
and every instrument
is delivering a message of hope. How can you not smile at the Joy with
which each of the
musicians are playing? “Joy, I leave
it up to
you.”
That
does it for me right there,
there’s not much else I need from a disc of music. Joy.
But, I will close with Bret Logan’s
own
words, for they are an important part of this release:
“I expect that it will be a "slow to
sink-in" listen for many. Basically, my focus musically has always been
to speak to
the sub-surface, meditative, "subconscious" parts of the mind -- and in
that
goal I don't let conscious-impact be a priority if it compromises the
other communications
(which I consider more universal). The down side: so much popular music
today is aimed
commercially toward conscious impact -- such that one could say a
10-year generation of
ears has been weaned to expect that level to be served almost
exclusively as the main
dish.
I think it makes us sound weird to many ears.
That's
our rebellion, in some ways. Certainly our stand.”
Not easily accessible,
is the gift of this unique band.
Is
It Real? by The
Bret Logan Band
is available now for $9.98
+ s/h*
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