{"id":39569,"date":"2005-12-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/roller\/"},"modified":"2005-12-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-12-16T00:00:00","slug":"roller","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/roller\/","title":{"rendered":"Roller"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Roller<\/i> is: big bold sparkly crunchy
\nfeed-your-head modern rock. Roller<\/i> isn’t: easily reviewed.
\nBear with me, now…<\/p>\n

Tvfordogs is the power-trio brainchild of
\nsinger-songwriter-guitarist-producer Neil Luckett, with whom I
\nfirst became acquainted via Wampus Multimedia’s terrific Warren
\nZevon tribute album, Hurry Home Early<\/i>. As for Wampus, it is
\n— and I mean this in the best possible way — the Island of Misfit
\nArtists when it comes to the indie label scene. Head Wampus Mark
\nDoyon seems to have a love affair with the true iconoclasts of the
\nscene, and the feeling appears quite mutual.<\/p>\n

Tvfordogs is yet another example of said, a British
\npower trio who bounce gleefully from style to style, sounding one
\nminute like a punked-up Rush — “The Universe Is Blue” opens this
\ndisc with a virtual Geddy Lee homage — and the next like slightly
\nless obtuse early R.E.M. (“Natural Science Fiction,” “Be Careful”).
\nIt’s all solid indie guitar rock in character, but there’s a steady
\nevolution through this album in terms of sound and approach. As the
\nheavy opening pair give way to “Roller” and “Everlasting Sun,”
\nLuckett and company focus increasing attention on melody and vocals
\nrather than crunch, revisiting Nirvana-esque heaviness only briefly
\n(“Monolith”) before turning out a startlingly effective pair of
\nballads in “100x” and “Drive.” As if to illustrate Luckett’s
\npropensity for throwing rocks at convention, the final third of the
\ndisc is highlighted by the thundering, propulsive theological query
\n“Where Is Your God?” and the nightclub jazz-pop outro “Time To Go.”
\nNo, really!<\/p>\n

Complete artistic freedom does not come without
\nhazards; at times Roller<\/i> simply got too dense for me, with
\nso many ideas and styles and moods competing for space that the
\nmusic begins to feel like a puzzle you get frustrated trying to
\nsolve and have to set aside for awhile. Still, the rewards are
\nthere for those who seek them out. It was a single line in “Drive”
\nthat convinced me to review this album — “I’m not even sure if we
\nshould be forgiven \/ So we drive” — and there’s plenty more
\nnuggets of that caliber to be mined here.<\/p>\n

In the end, the group that tvfordogs really reminds
\nme of is Semisonic, one of those too-cerebral-for-the-mainstream
\nbands whose octagonal musical persona never would fit into the
\nsquare hole their major label had in mind. (Dan Wilson, Mark Doyon;
\nMark, Dan. Don’t leave the room until the contracts are signed!)
\nIt’s a dehumanizing experience you see fewer and fewer bands
\nchoosing to go through in the modern age of indie labels and d.i.y.
\nartists. Kudos to Neil Luckett for sticking to his creative guns,
\nand to Mark Doyon for supporting his vision.<\/p>\n

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