Earlier this summer, I found myself in downtown Chicago covering
\nMOBfest, a collective of local bands hoping to break into the
\nbig-time. I went to this show as a favor to a publicist friend of
\nmine (and ended up hooking up with Steve, a fellow music enthusiast
\nand Web-head).<\/p>\n
As I sat through the first of many crummy acts, someone noticed
\nthat I was holding a bunch of CDs (which I brought to help promote
\n“The Daily Vault”). This guy handed me one of his band’s CDs, and
\nintroduced himself as a member of the group who was scheduled to
\nperform next.<\/p>\n
And while it’s taken me a long time to fulfill the promise I
\nmade to Joe Zangrilli that night at The Vic Theatre, I’ve finally
\ngotten around to reviewing Colonel Stem’s debut EP – and if this
\nband impressed me onstage (one of only two bands I saw anything
\npositive in), this disc proves that these guys are no fluke, and
\nare ready to launch a full-frontal assault on your eardrums.<\/p>\n
The band – guitarist\/vocalist Zangrilli, bassist Phil Stosur and
\ndrummer Abe Sanchez – remind me a bit of early Nirvana, though
\ntheir music is much more fluid and interesting. At times, one has
\nto wonder if you’re actually listening to a trio, since the rhythm
\nsection of this band is so textured.<\/p>\n
Although the opening track “Guy In The Bushes” starts off a bit
\nslow, Colonel Stem quickly throws the switch on this one and sends
\nit off into a direction that you might not have expected. This one
\nsong leaves little doubt in the listener’s mind that Colonel Stem
\nis a band destined for greatness. Tracks like “Sunking,” “You’ve
\nGot Male” and “Bottums Up” all confirm the suspicions.<\/p>\n
What makes
\nColonel Stem<\/i> unique is two things. First, this EP might only
\nbe 21 minutes long, but it solidifies the band’s position as one of
\nthe most exciting things to come out of Chicago since Billy Corgan
\nand Smashing Pumpkins. I normally complain that I can’t form an
\nopinion on such a small amount of music; in this case, I’ll
\ncomplain only because I want to hear more from Zangrilli and crew.
\nSecond, Colonel Stem doesn’t copy anyone’s sound, yet is able to
\ncreate an air of familiarity around their music. When you listen to
\nthese songs, it’s like listening to an old friend.<\/p>\n
The only knock I can put on
\nColonel Stem<\/i> regards the afterthoughts of weirdness
\nfollowing “Bottums Up”. I can live with the Leslie
\nNelsen-meets-horror film montage; that’s kind of entertaining. But
\nthe heavily-echoed voice right at the end, featuring a groan that
\nsounds like a cat caught in a garbage compactor – sorry, gang, but
\nthat was a bit of overkill. Scared the hell out of me too, I’m not
\nashamed to admit.<\/p>\n
\nColonel Stem<\/i> is the kind of CD that you’ll want to own,
\nsimply so you can say in a few years that you were there when this
\nband was just starting up, before they hit the big time. There’s no
\ndoubt in my mind that Colonel Stem is primed to make a big noise on
\nthe alternative scene, and will be superstars. The question is: how
\nsoon?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6490],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36898","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-colonel-stem","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36898"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36898"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}