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Columbus, Ohio is hardly a hotbed these days for national recording artists. The
likes of Howlin’ Maggie and Big Back Forty have come and long since gone. Enter
a band of college mates who met in Athens nearly a decade ago, Red Wanting Blue.
Since establishing a grass roots allegiance at Ohio University among frat guys
in tattered ball caps and wannabe hippy chicks, frontman Scott Terry and
guitarist Epp (with a rotating lineup for a rhythm section) have dragged the
band across the Midwest for years now touring the college pubs and crusty rock
halls that brag cheap cover charges and even cheaper beer. Over the span of nine
years and six independent records, Terry has penned a novel’s worth of poetry
and life sonnets, eventually melting them down into 4-minute musical
compositions.
Pride: The Cold Lover stands as RWB’s breakout endeavor, even if without a major
label. This latest offering, recorded at a studio in Raleigh, North Carolina,
boasts production know-how from the closest thing to “big time” sound engineers
that these guys have experienced. The outcome is startlingly good. Falling
somewhere between The Unforgettable Fire-era U2 and the current recipe that
drives Our Lady Peace, the 2005 version of Red Wanting Blue is razor-sharp and
deft in each of 10 works of art here. In a powerfully enticing play on geometry,
“The Formula” proposes, “I’ll be your Van Gogh if you’ll be every reason why it
made so much sense.” It’s just one of endless literary references that Terry
holds out to make Pride more attention-grabbing than prior outings. “Tearing
Down Stars” works on every level, a rollicking good musical ride, full of
multi-instrumental layers, but an equally intriguing piece of fiction. “We save
the tears to keep as souvenirs, multiplying in the dark so we’ll never be able
to spark a fire,” comes across as convincing as anything their own idols have
scribed. Then on the striking mid-tempo shuffle “Pride is a Lonely Blanket”,
Terry applies his best Brian Vander Ark in breathing, “We can’t seem to speak
with a tongue so roped and twisted, we are the part of the moment that lasts
when we hold it.”
For Epp’s part, his once remedial guitar playing has graduated to occupy the
same landscape as that of his influences, nothing shocking, nothing too
over-the-top. Subtle odes to The Cure can be heard throughout “Are You
Listening?”, another slick bit of stacking instrumental tracks and letting ‘er
rip vocally that both pay off. The highlight of Pride, however, comes bounding
through on back-to-back ballads, “Spies and Lovers” and “Your Alibi”. The latter
is a bona fide radio cut just waiting to be unsheathed (if not for Clear
Channel’s resistance to the unsigned), while “Spies and Lovers” tackles today’s
headlines with a predictable liberal bias we’ve come to foresee from our musical
voices.
RWB has come a long way from playing back porch parties and sorority mixers in
central Ohio. Their crusade to build a loyal throng of followers by endlessly
touring and stuffing the pipeline with new music should eventually spawn
national notoriety. In the meantime, a sixth chapter in their decade-old novel
embodies a commitment to career that many bands only hallucinate about. Two
thumbs up, lads!
~Red Rocker
redrocker@bullz-eye.com
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