Desmond Drive “I Called I”
If you’re lucky, you were around during the late eighties and early nineties when MTV capped weekends off with the pioneering alternative segment 120 Minutes. Remember The Replacements, Sisters of Mercy and Jesus and Mary Chain? How about Camper Van Beethoven, Blue Aeroplanes, Psychedelic Furs, Smithereens, Hoodoo Gurus, Flesh For Lulu and Kitchens of Distinction? You could count on The Cure, REM, Depeche Mode and The Smiths showing up on 120 Minutes but most importantly, you could rely on some of the most challenging and diverse music being created at the time on this show.
Spinning Desmond Drive’s I Called I is like a 120 Minutes event unto itself. Sometimes REM (particularly on the opening track “Two-Headed Beast”), sometimes Talking Heads, sometimes Camper Van Beethoven, sometimes The La’s and sometimes Dream Syndicate, Desmond Drive are masters of the lofty alt hook. You know, the breezy catcher in the sky that made you idle up and plant a wary hand on a Goth chick’s knee and ponder together why conventional rock lacked alternative’s all-purpose integrity.
Portions of Desmond Drive’s alt pop groove bears a doting wave to Swinging London and Liverpool with a Beatles twitch on the wistful “Goodbye” even as they wink in the direction of the late Roy Orbison on the effervescent “Poker Face,” complete with dramatic kettle drum rolls and sha-la-la backing vocals.
Led by vocalist/keyboardist Bill Shaouy, I Called I is a tuneful, meticulous and good-natured love of independent music where many extras are called to join the group’s world party in the form of gang choruses and interlude narration, as well as string and brass instrumentation to accompany their lighthearted sarcasm and frank idealism.
At times, the mix of Shaouy’s folksy vocals overpower the tunes, but by and large this album is full of pensive stargazing ditties such as “My Will,” “Happy Tollbooth Guy” and “Your Name.” The latter song is largely like Shaouy giving an echoing Kimball organ demo as used to be the norm in malls long since plowed to their foundations.
What’s especially strong about I Called I is its multiplicity even for an alt rock record. Out of nowhere comes percussion slapping and detailed soul and rock fusions ala Paul Simon’s Rhythm of the Saints on “Tribe.” The album closes on a dreamy seven-plus-minute spectacle with a flowing seam of sedate organs, bum-ah-bum vocal fills, whispery guitar slides, a synthetic breakdown and a piano, chime and guitar finale reminiscent of Guns n’ Roses “Estranged” on the charismatic “One Night.”
For a self-produced album, the members of Desmond Drive (also including Rob Gal on guitars, Steve Platnick on bass and Chuck Kelly on drums) have come up with a skilled and optimistic album done strictly for the joy of creation, much as the alternative bands of the past were provoked to do. The Cure are back in business these days with the colorful 4:13 Dream, thus let Desmond Drive follow behind to usher a recharged 120 ticks of alt rock revision bliss…
Reviewed By Rhonda Readence
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