The Sights – Are You Green? – Fall of Rome Records [Album As Art #21]

: Rough day at the orifice.

I’d assumed this trio had set its sights on breaking up years ago; I hadn’t heard about them in about 6 years and the hype that accompanied Are You Green? seems to have dried up big-time.

Turns out, The Sights are not dead at all. They have a tour ongoing and a record coming out; who knew?

Hey, my job isn’t to follow every band down the deep rabbit hole of indie-rock anonymity; my time is precious. I will say, however, that finding Are You Green? on half-translucent-/half-marble-green vinyl (for $7.95 no less) was definitely the highlight of my week.

If you’re going to spend all that cash on elaborate vinyl, you’d might as well rock like a hurricane in southern Texas, and The Sights, despite their wild inconsistencies, do just that.

Oh, and I almost forgot — The Sights are part of the semi-garage-rock resurgence of the early aughts that included:

The Detroit Cobras (never got to hear them, sadly);
everyone’s fave neat freaks The Hives;
personal faves Modey Lemon;
Garageland, who didn’t stick around for long;
good-to-great The Division Of Laura Lee;
The White Stripes (nothing to say, really);
The Black Keys, another somewhat overrated band;

And tons more I’m not going to name off like I’m everyone’s bitch or somethin’ … just know that a huge glut of garage-rock was plugging up the scene and that only a few of the bands hit on by Kurt Loder were ever worth a damn. (Remember Smile? They weren’t part of that scene but I’ve always liked their staring-at-the-sun asses and The Sights sound a little like ‘em … )

The Sights are one of those bands (though, again, I am basing this solely on Are You Green?). AYG? is a remarkable accomplishment in a genre permanently pock-marked by spotty albums, insanely short live sets and often-terrible musicianship.

Eddie Baranek, principle songwriter for all things Sights, made sure his trio never fell victim to these pitfalls. The songwriting is crisp as a granny smith apple and varietous as Exile on Main Street, with detours into Mc5-style slam/stomp/bomp-rock, early ’80s jangle-fop-pop (I’m thinking Antietam here), proto-garage and many more.

Baranek and co. even venture to bless several tunes with skronk-ular psych deviations that are not only legit but as good as any I’ve heard from a rock band post-’70s, full of panning, Ummagumma-esque bass lines and melting guitar scree.

Sometimes a fantastic debut album is really all you need. The Sights no doubt have more to accomplish, but I’ll probably always be content to stick with Are You Green? (hey, prove me wrong boys; prove me WRONG).