21
Jun
2005
Some bands are not cut out for the recording studio. They're great live, but when they get in that soundproofed room by themselves, they can't translate the energy. Often, the performances on studio CDs are too dry, and they reveal deficiencies in the songs that an audience isn't going to notice at midnight with a few drinks in them.
After two CDs, it looked as if that might be the problem with Wicked Liz & the Bellyswirls; the band's albums seemed somewhat sterile and drained.
But with their new record, Hulathong, Liz Treiber (formerly Townsend) and her band have done something pretty amazing. It's not a great studio album, but it's a terrific live CD - even though it was made at Catamount Recording. Hulathong isn't a cohesive artistic statement that we often expect from studio albums, but it has the buoyancy, kick, variety, and joy of an excellent concert. Treiber lets loose with her powerful, supple voice, and the players - guitarist Leo Kelly, bassist Bob Kelly, and drummer Greg Hipskind - are tight and fiery. The sound is clean and bright without coming off as manufactured or too sugary, and it's got just the right mix of professionalism and quirks.
The group's music is still on the generic side, with its bar-rock muscle often neutralized by so much pop sweetness, and with its structures and building-block sounds having an elemental familiarity.
But on Hulathong, every song is full of surprises, whether it's the uncharacteristically unhinged guitar freak-out that closes "Pico," the squeaky vocal warble that invades "Wicked Waltz," or the soulful, rough-around-the-edges blues conviction that Treiber summons on "It Hurt So Bad" (this collection's only cover, made famous by Susan Tedeschi). "Let It Go" has a tropical vibe but never settles into an easy groove; it moves, with a funky lead guitar line. The singer seizes control of "Ruby" with throaty glory and then hands the reins to her bandmates - in exactly the way you'd imagine in a live show.
Yet the studio CD also allows the band to mine the nuances of the songs. On "Wonder," Liz's sensitive, expressive phrasing helps bridge the gap between the tracks's seriousness - "Your smiling eyes have certainly faded / Think you left a long time ago" - and its tune, which invokes sunny leisure more than sadness.
Like much of the music on Hulathong, the lyrics are often rescued by moments of inspiration; a nice turn of the phrase elevates songs that are otherwise loaded with vagueness. The track "9 a.m." features a pair of striking phrases: "Day grew dark at 9 a.m." and "Like a marble in a maze."
The members of Wicked Liz & the Bellyswirls certainly think Hulathong represents a major step forward. For the first time, Bob Kelly said, "there's stuff left on the cutting-room floor."
Beyond that, Leo Kelly said, producer Tom Tatman helped the group find the proper sound, a way of mimicking the energy of the live show in the studio. "We have this vibrant live thing," he said. Tatman, Bob Kelly added, "felt like people [who worked on previous CDs] had missed the energy of this band."
Tatman didn't, and the result shows off Wicked Liz & the Bellyswirls in the best possible light.
Wicked Liz & the Bellyswirls will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 25, at the Taste of the Quad Cities, at the John Deere Commons in Moline.
After two CDs, it looked as if that might be the problem with Wicked Liz & the Bellyswirls; the band's albums seemed somewhat sterile and drained.
But with their new record, Hulathong, Liz Treiber (formerly Townsend) and her band have done something pretty amazing. It's not a great studio album, but it's a terrific live CD - even though it was made at Catamount Recording. Hulathong isn't a cohesive artistic statement that we often expect from studio albums, but it has the buoyancy, kick, variety, and joy of an excellent concert. Treiber lets loose with her powerful, supple voice, and the players - guitarist Leo Kelly, bassist Bob Kelly, and drummer Greg Hipskind - are tight and fiery. The sound is clean and bright without coming off as manufactured or too sugary, and it's got just the right mix of professionalism and quirks.
The group's music is still on the generic side, with its bar-rock muscle often neutralized by so much pop sweetness, and with its structures and building-block sounds having an elemental familiarity.
But on Hulathong, every song is full of surprises, whether it's the uncharacteristically unhinged guitar freak-out that closes "Pico," the squeaky vocal warble that invades "Wicked Waltz," or the soulful, rough-around-the-edges blues conviction that Treiber summons on "It Hurt So Bad" (this collection's only cover, made famous by Susan Tedeschi). "Let It Go" has a tropical vibe but never settles into an easy groove; it moves, with a funky lead guitar line. The singer seizes control of "Ruby" with throaty glory and then hands the reins to her bandmates - in exactly the way you'd imagine in a live show.
Yet the studio CD also allows the band to mine the nuances of the songs. On "Wonder," Liz's sensitive, expressive phrasing helps bridge the gap between the tracks's seriousness - "Your smiling eyes have certainly faded / Think you left a long time ago" - and its tune, which invokes sunny leisure more than sadness.
Like much of the music on Hulathong, the lyrics are often rescued by moments of inspiration; a nice turn of the phrase elevates songs that are otherwise loaded with vagueness. The track "9 a.m." features a pair of striking phrases: "Day grew dark at 9 a.m." and "Like a marble in a maze."
The members of Wicked Liz & the Bellyswirls certainly think Hulathong represents a major step forward. For the first time, Bob Kelly said, "there's stuff left on the cutting-room floor."
Beyond that, Leo Kelly said, producer Tom Tatman helped the group find the proper sound, a way of mimicking the energy of the live show in the studio. "We have this vibrant live thing," he said. Tatman, Bob Kelly added, "felt like people [who worked on previous CDs] had missed the energy of this band."
Tatman didn't, and the result shows off Wicked Liz & the Bellyswirls in the best possible light.
Wicked Liz & the Bellyswirls will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 25, at the Taste of the Quad Cities, at the John Deere Commons in Moline.
