Kleveland - wwww.klevelandmusic.com
Kleveland (released 2006)
Self Produced
Apparently Kleveland is one woman and two invited men to back her up. At least that's teh way the promo sheet made it sound. It's her band, her being Stephanie Smith, leader, vocalist and lead guitarist for the dark rock outfit. Maybe I shouldn't have said dark, a better word would be brooding or bluesy. Yeah, that's it. The music and most of the songs are pretty meloncholy in nature, but still manage to be rather catchy. Not so catchy to be overtly poppy or sugar laced, but certainly danacable, toe tapping music. The album features thirteen tracks of bass heavy melodies, with Stephanie's chants, brief singing and talking covering over her rightly power chords. From the opening track, you think you're heading for a potent rock n roll, with heavy blues influenced mixed with crunchy guitar licks and a solid rhythm section meant to fill the gaps that the vocals and guitar cannot fill. But by the middle of the disc, like on "Flat Tax", things get a little more complicated, as the band delves into a slow melodic pop track that could find it's way to college radio or even underground indie rock showcases. That track in particular is quite different, probably because it isn't a brooding downward trajectoried song, like the many before it. The remainder of the disc doesn't approach the gloomier front half, again chalk it up to blues and dark rock influences there, as the end of the album explores a more uptempoed rock n roll that is more befitting the band. I don't think that all of the songs, lyrically, are as upbeat as the sound of the music. But I don't think that Kleveland is out to be a political force either, so the varied songs and lyrics often seem to cover love, life and in the first track, theft. I really dig the first track, "Jonny Is A Klepto". It is easily one of the best tracks, with the great opening sequence, great lyrics that tell a fun story and then the fnatastic chorus: "You got something I need, then I'll take it." Great line...great song! Fans of moody, bluesy rock with indie rock tendencies that allow a band to explore both sides of accessible and inaccessible rock n roll for the masses. -MG
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