Eagle Staff Writer
Retro
is still definitely hip. And anything that is hip is its hippest in New
York City. Semi Gloss is the new Dirt Records band that manages to mix
a good amount of hip, retro and pop that swirls together quite happily.
Imagine that the first
Cure record had been happy and had female vocals and you may get close
to its sound. Semi-Gloss plays the light, swirly version of old rock mixed
with a tinge of jazz and indie. The band's clean telocaster sound definitely
invokes images of late '70s new wave style, but the rest is decidedly more
'90s. Semi- Gloss' singer and keyboard player, Verena, is "a Swiss/French/Chinese
chanteuse" who undoubtedly invokes the hip image as she "performs in straight-out-of-Paris
'50s dinner gowns."
Semi Gloss' solid and
entertaining songs have a great mix of melody and control. For the retro/new
wave crowd of the '90s (if there is indeed one), Semi- Gloss will be a
great find. The only point in which the albums wanes is the vocals. Verena's
vocals can be beautiful, but at other times they are surprising low or
even spoken. Even still, the memorable choruses of most of the songs more
than make up for any low points of the debut album, even the song about
whistling.
Drill Team is also
a band that fits into the fairly slim category of good '90s music. Since
the word "alternative" has officially come to mean arena rock bands, any
band that may have fit into the category will hereby be referred to simply
as '90s rock. Drill Team is a '90s rock band that neither fits the arena
group nor the indie label. However, Drill Team manages to sound a little
better than the average band sent off to the college press. The vocalist
is probably the strongest, creating somewhat memorable melodies in a unique,
well-trained voice. He is backed by some fairly impressive guitar work
that will manage to keep some people's attention for the entire album.
It is not exactly the next great rock band, but Drill Team is a whole heck
of a lot better than most of the alternative and fake indie sludge that's
out there these days. The worst shot against the band is really its name.
.
By GREG