One Hundred Flowers Build a Mechanical Bride [Album Review and Show Preview]
Friday, October 22
Emos (603 Red River St)
$6, Doors at 9pm
[info] | [tickets]
What are the dangers inherent in making your debut indie rock record? For the last few years, the poorer-produced, the better - hence this renaissance of crappy bedroom four-track recording, even as one of the forefathers of the genre, Daniel Johnston, is now making big, chipper albums with Jason Falkner and was quoted as saying, "Everyone needs to take their demos and go back to the studio.” But okay, what about the opposite danger - that of an album sounding too polished and too produced? One thinks of the creations of producer/musician Chris Walla, who managed to anesthetize albums by The Decembrists, Nada Surf, and his own band Death Cab For Cutie. While Mechanical Bride, the debut album from scrappy quintet One Hundred Flowers doesn’t fit into either extreme, it does have a gloss to it that sometimes puts the listener at a distance. Still, there’s so much going on and enough turns and layers to these songs that you can’t blame the band for giving Mechanical Bride everything they could. It’s a fine debut album, and a clever equation of pop and rock that should satisfy a broad range of tastes.
On the roster of local imprint Stem and Leaf records, One Hundred Flowers is the brainchild of Harrison Speck, a musician who first stepped out with an EP called Some Summer Falls three years ago. Since then, he recruited a very full band, with keys, piano and trumpet adding to a melee already established by a more traditional rock lineup (guitar, bass, drums). As befitting such a lineup, each song on Mechanical Bride is a pileup of brassy lead and backup vocals, hand claps, synthesizer, trumpet, or some variety thereof. It lends an epic feel to tracks like “You Really Must Accept,” which builds to a shuddering climax amidst a chorus of voices. But the crown jewel of Mechanical Bride is "Echoes Diminished," which best expresses Speck’s twisty songwriting detours while marrying it with a gorgeous coda at past two and a half minutes in that is both playful and divine. For yet another Death Cab For Cutie comparison, Speck has a tone like the softly evocative Ben Gibbard, but on this track he has never sounded more like himself, especially when he coyly adds, “But what the fuck is finished?” It’s a wonderful song, down to the careful, echoing female vocals that flood the end and lead into “Hey Emile!”
The bouncy opener “Rat Trap” is another standout, and one that mines smart vocal hooks without overdoing it…despite a running time of over five and a half minutes. Occasionally Mechanical Bride does seem a bit overdone, as its construction was obviously meticulous and purposeful - producer Erik Wofford is known for making emotive records that nevertheless leave little room for breathing or play or error - but it’d be wrong to fault a band for doing all they could to make a strong debut. Let’s wait to level our criticism at the next half-cocked, born-in-a-basement catchall of fuzzy teenage guitar tunage, okay? Okay.
One Hundred Flowers plays Emo’s tonight to celebrate the release of Mechanical Bride. Joining them will be Pink Nasty, Follow That Bird! and Simple Circuit. The first fifty to walk through the doors get a copy of the new album, and they’ve also got one hundred Lone Star tallboys to give away.
One Hundred Flowers: [website]
Pink Nasty: [website]
Follow That Bird!: [myspace]
Simple Circuit: [myspace]
