| Issue
#80
Nov ‘05
“I
don’t see / Anyone but me / My reality / is a syncopated /
self-inflated / rhyme”
Everyone has a way to exorcize their demons.
Maybe it’s alcohol, drugs, triple
fudge brownies, or some bizarre ritual either handed down through the
family/friends, or
for that matter created in an instance of revelation, no matter how
inane and senseless at
the time. It can become an aura, a karma, a bit of inner peace. Artists
find that exorcism
in their arts.
Brutally Frank
is a side project of Frank Critelli
(guitar, singing). We won’t
discredit the value of Mike Franzman
(drums ,
percussion), and Tom Harrington
(bass) –
because of them we are treated to singer/songwriter Frank
Critelli’s inner album, his
inner peace. As Brutally Frank
these three
musicians shine. What I should do is handle Brutally
Frank as a band unto its own.
But I won’t. Brutally
Frank is Frank Critelli,
writer. As a writer, Frank passes
along individual tales that can be at once biographic, autobiographic,
or just straight
out fictional - either way they are amazing tales of personal insight
that make you
connect with not only the author, but also the character on the stage
that is so deftly
constructed upon the intense undergroove of Tom’s deep
rhythmic bass playing and
Mike’s plethora of drum kits.
In You
can’t handle the truth, a 5 song
EP, we find Frank Critelli purging his soul in a much different manner
than his previous
solo releases. Placing song arrangements into the hands of a band
allows Frank to step
outside of himself and present the “truth” in a 3rd
person removed
fashion. It loosens him up to the point where he can give us a
wonderfully tempered upbeat
rendition of Downhill
from Here, which looks at the 2nd
half of someone’s lifetime.
Using a perfectly timed harmonica break/bridge to give pause, to
reflect on the concise
lyrics, we acknowledge the good in what has not only passed but what
yet lies ahead even
in the decline of our years.
By following that with I Feel Fine,
Frank once again takes an obvious singer/songwriter composition of
bleak reflections on
the sadness and loneliness of life in general and twists it upward with
jaunty bass lines,
tight rhythmic drumming, and a happy harmonica urging us onward:
“How would I know if the sun will
rise tomorrow / How
should I know what to do with today / All the time we waste in
preparation / For a future
we may never taste / My time is mine / and it’s not mine / My
oh my / sunshine / I
will drink wine / And I feel fine.”
“I’m
sorry / she’s unimpressed”
opens song 3, Selfish One,
and coming on the heals of I
Feel Fine,
it follows the same up-tempo philosophy while giving a contrasting
answer to the previous
song’s statement. Where I Feel Fine relates that the
best way to deal
with the uncertainties of life is to be sure to make your own good in
your life, Selfish
One
gives us the 180 degree angle look that the better half is usually able
to provide. Sang
in the 1st person point of view, the narrator
recognizes the criticism involved
with his current “Downhill from here / I feel fine”
outlook on life.
“I must confess / I don’t
see / Anyone but
me / My reality / is a syncopated / self inflated / rhyme.”
But when we’re
told “no there’s no
question / who’s
the selfish one.” We are left to wonder; who indeed?
With those personal demons vanquished,
Frank, Mike, and Tom: Brutally Frank,
turn their attention to the
vehicle of the exorcism, the art of music, by presenting one of the
best psychedelic tunes
ever written. The
Unspoken Thing, opens with a Doors styled bass line
grooving slowly under a
sprinkling of Jefferson Airplane tambourine – add Beatles
style production techniques
(including backward tape looping), a soaring lead guitar, tribal drums
and vocal F/X and
before you know it it’s 1968. The strobe lights and lava
lamps are at full tilt,
incense wafts through the beaded doorways and everyone is barefoot and
stoned. A total
trip that’s worth taking again and again - “Don’t say a word,”
just hit repeat again
and again…
Psycho
Stone closes this homage to one man’s
inner self (which once exposed does
look quite like many others as well). A conglomerate of (I’m
not your) Stepping Stone
and Psycho Killer, this run through allows Brutally Frank to temper the
end of You
can’t handle the truth with a bit of side fun
that’ll have everyone whose been
listening smiling at all the syncopated, self-inflated rhymes that
we’ve all come to
identify with as our bizarre rituals or instances of revelation that
have become our
auras, karmas, and bits of inner peace.
Brutally Frank
may have been created by Frank Critelli
to privately exorcize his demons,
but by releasing it, he has helped to do the same with ours.
That doesn’t sound too selfish to
me.
Maybe we can handle the truth.
You can't handle the
truth. by
Brutally Frank
is available now for: $5.98 + s/h*
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