Monday, April 30, 2007
 

I think this week is going to be kind of insane for me, so let's ease into it with the nice lo-fi sounds of McCarthy Trenching.  The artist is on Conor Oberst's New York based label, Team Love, but is another in the long line of stellar musicians from Omaha, Nebraska.  In fact, the main brain behind the project, Dan McCarthy, has toured with Bright Eyes, Azure Ray, The Good Life, Mayday, Orenda Fink and just about any of the other artists out of that state, so I willing to say that he is a bit more seasoned than most who have just put out their debut.  If you have ever wanted to hear a really witty Conor, minus the voice quiver and a somewhat theatrical presentation, then you are going to really love what Dan has created.  Enjoy.

:McCarthy Trenching - XXX:  In the press release for MT there was a comment by Dan where he noted that he wanted the album to have a quiet feel, but whenever they play live it just turns into a full-out rock band.  I believe that foot-stomping bar tunes like this one would be a big reason that tends to happen.  Dan has one of those voices where you not only feel compelled to listen, but to cheer, especially when he belts out lines like  "Mine's a hard life/But I have chosen to keep going."  This one is highly recommended.

:McCarthy Trenching - Headlines:  "I never read the headlines/I always read the bylines/It's not what you know/It's who told you so."  As the press release also pointed out, Dan tends to have a knack for sounding a lot older than 28, and I find it especially apparent in this song.  His voice and the arrangement are both somber and reflective, so not only does it sound like a guy wise beyond his years, but it shows that MT is capable of more than rowdy numbers.  Break out the lighters for this one. 
 

On a grindhouse related side note, I watched The Candy Snatchers this past weekend.  The plot of the film revolved around three inexperienced goons who kidnap a girl named Candy, so that they can make her father give up all of the diamonds from the store that he manages.  Little do they know though, he doesn't care about his stepdaughter and will actually benefit from her death.  There were some good campy laughs, but the rest of it was kind of raw and bizarre; the ending in particular was a bit of a shock.  It would be interesting to see how this kind of content would play with the paranoid, yet desensitized, audiences of today.

- John Laird -



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