Needy Visions - s/t - Bowac Records
Needy Visions – s/t [FULL-ALBUM download, check it out then order the LP!]
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Sometimes a record will pop in the door and get lost in the pile almost immediately. Happened with Needy Visions‘ self-titled LP, and it’ll probably happen again, but it doesn’t mean I don’t CARE. We’re all civilized people here.
“Endless Possibilities” is where I find my audio-lover NUT, first and foremost. It’s got this great slow grind to it that stretches out the Visions’ needy groove and accentuates the best parts of the band. This is the type of rock-ism I need in my life as I disappear slowly but surely into a drone/noise/ambient stupor. It’s important to keep one’s feet planted in bass, drums and guitar, no?
The bass player even gets a little cute on this one. All my years as a drummer I wanted to play with a four-stringer with chops this blown-up. The tone of “Possibilities” is celebratory on the surface, but there’s depth to it; further investigations into the lyrics may or may not bear out. Hell, they sound OK to me.
A lotta left-turns into territory I’m not sure I can follow them into — cuts like “Mac’s Big Secret” and “All Day Every Day” dilute the goodness of the higher-shelf action a bit, yet I’m reticent to give them the ol’ heave-ho because tunes like “Big Secret” serve a purpose, loosening things up a bit and making me want to chug a beer and go outside for a smoke. Definite pub-rock vibes on that one.
Side B is pregnant with more chance currents of young-guy fervor and clean-’letric guitar with lots of sloppy pickin’ and tandem string action. And Dan Shea is a seriously up-front vocalist circa (and this is not an insult in my eyes) Steven Bays of early Hot Hot Heat and Tim Kasher of Cursive. I don’t always agree with his choices; sometimes he yelps, scaling WAY HIGH when I feel another course of action might do a better job of “tying the room together” as they say. But he goes for the goddamn gold and balls if I’ll fault him for that. It’d be like cursing a noise band for being too ear-piercing or a baby for walking around too much. How could I not encourage such enthusiasm?
“Havers of Fun” pretty much says it all: Needy Visions are a rock ‘n’ roll band unafraid to sound both bombastic and exCITed about their craft in an age of staring into the ground and/or gazing off into the distance and writing lyrics and songs to reflect that detached sense of being. Not I, say Shea and Co.: We’re going to forge ahead without synthesizers and still find a way to be innovative and distinct. YES.
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