Steel Pole Bathtub, Hootie-esque Paw sound only slightly original
Darren Mor-X, Mike Morasky and Dale Flattum, the members of Steel Pole Bathtub, must've fallen down an awful lot. Their latest album, Scars from Falling Down , sounds like the musical manifestation of some very scarred minds. The grungy songs bespeak tremendous 20-nothing angst.
The very depressing "Home is a Rope" sums up their Reality Bites ethos. Dale Flattum sings, "There's never been anything ever to do/ Except stare at the stereo/I can always get a job at 7-11/Cause there's no reason to try/No, I'll never get away from anything." The discordant guitars and resonating feedback also create a musical aura of frustration.
Steel Pole Bathtub hails from San Francisco, but their music buzzes like a product of Seattle. In fact, the band started in that Puget Sound musical mecca and continues to draw heavy bar crowds there. Musically, their anarchic, guitar-driven, feedback and sampling-infused indie rock sounds much like one of those Stone-Temple-Pearl-Dog bands.
What distinguishes Steel Pole Bathtub from the Seattle scene, according to drummer Darren Mor-X in an interview with Rolling Stone, is that "we're not patriotic flannel." November's Rolling Stone featured Steel Pole Bathtub as one of the hippest indie bands in its "On the Edge '95" section.
Fashion isn't the only thing that differentiates this band from the amorphous sea of Seattle grunge. Steel Pole Bathtub, who think of bands like the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Unsane and 7-Year Bitch as their musical contemporaries, adds a few of their own musical variations to the screeching guitars.
As a majestic swan song, the almost-elegiac "Friday" reveals tremendous psychic scars. Unfortunately, Scars from Falling Down includes more missteps than triumphant notes. "Four Barrels" is a grueling 1:23 of engine noise, squeals, drum beats and fuzzy feedback. Most of the rest of the CD could've come from any number of grunge bands. You can take Steel Pole Bathtub out of their flannel, but you can't take the flannel-philosophy out of their music.
At first listen, parts of Paw's sophomore effort Death To Traitors make one think of (shudder) Hootie and the Blowfish. Particularly on songs like "Seasoned Glove," "Hope I Die Tonight" and "Last One," vocalist Mark Hennessy's sonorous baritone begs comparison with that singer everyone loves to hate, Darius Rucker.
But Paw is not simply a Hootie-clone band. Musically, Paw transcends the Blowfish. Imagine throwing Hootie's pop, Pearl Jam's grunge, Aerosmith's power guitars and Wilco's country-fried rock in a blender, hitting "puree" and seasoning with a heavy dash of cheesy lyrics. The musical hybrid would sound like Death to Traitors .
The CD isn't all bad; it has its ingratiating moments. The buoyant instrumental "Sweet Sally Brown" proves swingy and infectious. The simple combination of guitar and drums works quite well here. Paw achieves some other melodic and even vocal triumphs as well. The harmonies on the chorus of the ballad, "Last One" and the wistful counterpoint vocal line on "Texas" make those songs worth listening to.
It's when Hennessy abandons his Hootie-esque smoothness and Paw cuts loose on high-octane tunes like the title track and the squawking "Built Low" that they become hardest to listen to.
Brothers Peter (drums, percussion) and Grant Fitch (guitars, lap steel, vocals) form Paw's core, and singer Mark Hennessy rounds out their musical makeup. Essentially a three-piece with a revolving-door bass policy, Paw draws on the bass talents of Paul Boblett, Grant Fitch and John Licardello on Death to Traitors . Other musicians take the stage when Paw tours.
The album ends on a disappointing note. "Sunflower" is generally indistinguishable from the rest of the album and hardly a memorable way to end. In fact, Hennessy's last sound is probably best described as a yelp.
Touring is something they do often and hopefully better than they record albums. Their music could easily be more inspiring played live to a room full of fans than it is through the speakers of a CD player.
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