Tommy, Bruce and Tric of Garage Voice have been friends of mine for a few years now. I met them through one of my roommates in college, another fine artist, Mr. Ben Blood who knew them from living in Seattle, WA. The members of Garage Voice, hitherto be referred to as “GV”, ¹ quickly became fast friends, and I have looked forward to their visits, and myself visiting them. I tell you this upfront so you know that I may be a bit biased in my review

Let Us Reconcile is GV’s third LP album. I would argue it’s also their best album to date. It’s a bit of a departure from the rest of their catalogue, but I feel that it’s a welcome change.

GV has the amazing ability to make you feel as if you are their best friend, even if you’ve only seen them play once. They interact with their fans, and make them friends. This has caused an interesting phenomenon: GV rarely gets criticism from their fan base. Because you feel like they are your friends, and not some aloof band in your musical collection, you’re willing to put up with music less coinciding with your personal tastes than you would with any other band. Very few people are truly musically eclectic, the members of GV being some of them. Because of that, most of us are pigeon-holed into one or two musical genres, with some random aberration here and there. With this in mind, consider GV’s seemingly incongruous amalgamations of bossa nova, jazz and prog-rock all wrapped up within jam band-y-ness. Each of those genres are niches at best, and they mixing them up into a soup fit for a very select group of people. And yet, I’ve met very few people who will admit to not liking them; the same people who look at a Stan Gets album with boredom, have no idea what bossa nova sounds like outside of “The Girl from Ipanema”, or had no idea Rush played anything other than “Tom Sawyer”.

GV has had a tough time getting radio rotation, even within Seattle’s indie-friendly culture. It’s not due to lack of talent, all three members are incredible musicians and songwriters. I believe they just have such a specific sound, that without that personal connection with the band, it’s difficult to find a market for them. In an age where record labels sculpt “artists” based more on poll numbers and amount of skin shown rather than musical talent and skill, GV sticks out like an emo kid in Beverly Hills, no one knows what to do with them, so they just leave them alone.

At least, that has been my impression until I gave Let Us Reconcile a listen. I had a chat with Tommy (lead vocals and guitar) a while ago, and he said that GV had a band meeting and as much as they loved the jazz, loved the bossa nova, loved the prog-rock, they were first and foremost a rock band, and were going focus their writing on more straight ahead rock; which they did. Let Us Reconcile starts out with a two-chord rocker, Book It. Cropper is a boogie jam, complete with Hammond B3 organ and catchy hooks. Loud As Your Miracles – my personal favorite – has almost a spiritual a capella beginning than breaks into the closest thing to classic rock I’ve heard from the boys. Not to completely alienate their musical fans, the albums production still feels very indie, it’s not all sleek and produced like most of todays rock. Tommy’s guitar on Loud as Miracles is fairly thin for the riffs he’s laying down, relaying a more of a reference to older classic rock, rather than an affinity to modern rock.

I really liked this album, it was a pleasant surprise! As I understand it, their next album, which is currently in the works, will have an even rockier edge to it, so I’m stoked. I would highly recommend Let Us Reconcile to anyone who is currently a fan of GV, as well as people who like the indie rock genre, and those looking for an interesting take on a classic sound.

Links:
GarageVoice.Com
iTunes Music Store
Amazon.Com MP3 Download
Direct Download from GarageVoice.Com
BenBlood.Com

¹ I realize the the comma was supposed to be inserted inside the quotation, but I think that the English language has a large gaping hole when it comes to the rules concerning quotation marks and punctuation. I think it’s absurd that you’d put punctuation that doesn’t refer to the text inside the quote, but to the sentence as a whole, inside with the quote. It’s a grave error in syntax and as someone who codes on a semi-regular basis, I can tell you that a language lives and dies by it’s adherence to syntax. The rule should be, if the punctuation refers to the text in the quote, than it belongs inside the quotation marks, if not than it belongs outside of them. In order to push for change, I write with the assumption that this we soon be implemented in High School English classes quite soon.