Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Lonely H - Kick Upstairs

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Lonely H

Kick Upstairs

Contributor: Valentine

“If the Beach Boys coached the Bad News Bears, and Rivers Cuomo was glued to the bleachers holding a little flag that said 'fuck yeah,' you’d see oceans of that cetacean brotherhood and heartbreaking nature mix with outstanding pop blood and rock-youth truth.” I don’t even know what that means, but it is in The Lonely H’s press kit and on their Web site. It left me feeling like Kick Upstairs had a lot to live up to. I know that much. I also know I hate comparing a band to some other band. With a press-kit statement like that, all I want to do is make comparisons.

The Beach Boys: the guys who perverted surf music into the beach-party bachelor-quartet pop it became. That is not to say they made bad music; it is to say that they are not my favorite. I do recognize that a lot of people love them and the sound they helped popularize. Listening to Kick Upstairs, I’m guessing that the comparison is to the pop element. I wasn’t hearing a whole lot of four-part harmonies and whatnot in the vocals. There are backups, but not on a Beach Boys level. There is no theremin that I am aware of. Maybe the Beach Boys aren’t the best jumping-off point for these guys.

I’m not sure that the Bad News Bears ever had a band, so I have no idea how to draw a comparison there. I’m left feeling confused. I guess this comparison has something to do with the brotherhood comment. I’m not putting much thought into it though. I like my music to be musical, not familial.

In my opinion, Rivers Cuomo is just so-so without Matt Sharp. That being said, a lot of people still really like that band Weezer. I can hear the comparisons to Rivers though. The melodies and vocal parts sound like they are taken from his playbook. There are fuzzy guitars, and quiet pretty guitars, but no swells of fuzzed-out rock guitars like I would expect. Maybe that is the fault of the production though. When I want a swell, I want it to be loud and crash into my ears.

So, did I love The Lonely H? No. Did I hate them? By no means. Do they live up to the hype given them in their press kit? Um, sort of, I guess. I’m still trying to figure out what little league baseball has to do with rock and roll, though.

You can contact the author at: valentine@agouti.com

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