|
Pulse of the Twin Cities Login |
|
If you do not have an account yet
Create One.
|
|
|
Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
|
|
|
|
Unguided Missile
Thursday 26 December @ 17:10:05 |
 by P.J. Morel
“You know, it’s kinda nice being in a band in your 30s, ‘cause now you can afford to be in a band,” muses Sean Williams, drummer for Unguided Missile. His attitude is reflected in his bandmates’ grins. Together they recently completed a CD that they’re proud to call “their first full-length.” Not that they haven’t been out rocking and rolling for a good long time: “When I was in my 20s, I didn’t have any money to put out a CD or buy equipment,” explains Kurt Allis, the band’s singer-songwriter. “It might have been a good thing, too, ‘cause that way all the crappy music didn’t get released.”
It’s “awe-shucks” sort of talk from a band with some real talent: Allis played drums for early ’90s local fave Brenda; bass player Greg McAloon is a longtime member of the Glenrustles; and guitar player Ben Durrant has produced critically-acclaimed bands like Dosh and Lateduster. But things do look to be falling into place for the foursome with the release of Time Well Wasted, a tight and carefully-produced recording that shows “experienced” doesn’t have to mean “dispassionate.”
Indeed, the guys in Unguided Missile seem to need the rock more than ever just now, when the tedium of life’s fourth decade tends to set in. Kurt, who’s tall and has a tendency towardsrather comical, Kramer-esque tics, pays the bills by welding steel-frame beds for Room & Board. “At work, in order to utilize my time well when I’m welding…well, you don’t have to use one hundred percent of your brain while you’re doing that. So I just kind of go on auto pilot. The only time I really have to concentrate is when I’m actually making a weld. And the rest of the time I can just think about lyrics for songs.”
That habit has worked its way directly into the band’s tunes: “I’m living on a slavery wage, trying not to worry as I age. / I lament my passing youth,” Kurt sings on “American Nightmare.” “I wrote while I was at work and having a really %@!#$&ty day,” He admits. “It was expressing the frustration of someone who’s just barely getting by.” So he scribbled down his thoughts in a notebook he keeps in his tool box.
You can tell Allis thinks of himself as a mole at his job, an undercover rock-and-roller who makes high-end furniture for snooty bedroom communities. “No one’s caught me [writing lyrics] yet, but I don’t want anyone at work to know that I’m doing that, ‘cause then they’d be asking questions all the time, like ‘when’s your next show?’ and all that. And I’m like—nope. You don’t need to know about that. I don’t need by boss showing up at a show, especially when I’m singing about how I hate my job.”
If Kurt’s job has been the source of Unguided Missile’s emotion, it’s Ben Durrant’s day job as owner and producer of Crazy Beast Studio that’s responsible for the swirling and vibrant recording. Unguided Missile’s sound is something like punk-for-grownups: their sound is still brash and immediate, with cymbal crashes and guitar feedback that burn through the mix; but hardcore screaming has given way to a world-weary crooning.
“I’d keep turning Kurt up in the mix so he has no choice [but to sing well],” says Durrant. “He’s like, ‘uh, why don’t you burry that a little bit.’ And I’d say ‘uh uh.’” On certain songs—particularly the dreamy, psychedelic “Ocean”—Allis’ drawling tenor sounds rather like Beck’s. On others, sing-spoken verses (combined with Durrant’s wailing guitar) are reminiscent of Hendrix. Like those celebrated musicians, Unguided Missile has a knack for sounding artfully artless.
Unguided Missile got some help from some well-known friends to round out their sound. Fog wunderkind Andrew Broder contributed some backing vocals; and violinist-about-town Jessy Green graces the opening track, “Perpetual Outsider,” with her playing. But most impressive is the fact that all of the songs on Time Well Wasted glitter with energy: this band sounds young. The album doesn’t fetishize spit-and-polish the way so many recordings by established musicians do. It’s got raggedy rhythms and wild dynamics and the sort of texture that sustains a listener’s interest.
That’s testimony to the excellence of the performances that make up each of the songs here, and the enthusiasm of the musicians. “It’s called Time Well Wasted, but that’s kinda sarcastic,” says Allis. “[The title is] about being in a rock band: is it a waste of time, or is it worth the time? That song [“Time Well Wasted”] kinda answers the question. ‘Cause if someone doesn’t have any kind of outlet like being in a band, then they become some boring, fat, suburban loser. It expresses how I feel, anyways, being in my 30s. Being older, you start to think, ‘should I still be doing this?’ But then if I didn’t have a band…Some people don’t have anything except cable TV.”
Unguided Missile plays a release show for “Time Well Wated” at the Turf Club with Ol’ Yeller on Fri., Dec. 27. 8 p.m. 21+. 1601 University Ave, St. Paul. 651-647-0486.
|
|
 |
|
|
