[Albums] Tris McCall & The New Jack Trippers - I'm Assuming...

I feel so Bohemian, like you. Tris McCall's new record on Jersey Beat Music is a humorous and interesting trip, and an attempt at making a rock record without any guitar. I'll be honest and say that I wasn't too keen on quite a bit of it at first, but it grew on me like a fungus, and after seeing the band perform the tunes at a bomb-funk release show in Maxwell's in Hoboken, I was quite won over (Jim Testa on the show and the record). The record itself is a kind of documentation of Tris and The Trippers' experiences trying to get somewhere in the Brooklyn/Williamsburg music scene, the insert itself being a bit of a dirty diary written by Tris recording day-to-day events, and the songs run thru the gamut of the band's experiences, ending off with a tune aching to return to New Jersey.

The best moments on this record are the mellow rockers. The solo track "The Hymn Against Whiskey" is a really touching song in which Tris reaches out to a friend who can't seem to handle his/her juice. "Lucky 13" is a bittersweet, funny, and lonely ballad pining for the streets of Hudson County; "I bartered away my life / I'm lookin' for a sign / things just haven't gone the way I planned." If you're a young person living in New Jersey and that line doesn't stab you in the heart, you must have smoked yourself into absolute indifference. It's a lovely tune that looks for beauty in defeat. "Ash Street Ascension" is another beautiful mellow rocker crooning along, "we're all waiting, to see you fly," and the harpsichord - Tris' main instrument on the record - sounds probably the best it does on the entire record.

This album suffers from a serious lack of low-end. Needs more junk in the trunk. To be fair, it was recorded live, and it's just not exactly cheap to buy nice condenser mics or easy to get good sound isolation in a live scenario. But McCall and producer Michael Flannery ought to have spent a little more time on the bass sound, which instead of really driving the tunes under the harpsichord, comes across as flat-sounding and mixed as though it were a background instrument.

The rockin tunes - Tris's voice is a bit like Elvis Costello's. I can't stand Elvis Costello. Yet, it's not difficult for me to get past that. The lyrics are damn funny, the cynicism and sarcasm are appropriately scathing for the subjects of the songs, and just about all of them are infectious and you'll find yourself hummig them along as soon as you take off your headphones. The rockin tunes suffer from a not-live feel; they don't have that nervous and electric energy that comes from playing for an audience. That's asking a lot, I realize, but the performance that Tris and the Trippers put on at their release party in Maxwell's showed a band that was generally far more confident in the tunes, and if they recorded them all the next day my guess is that it would be ten times better, if still not live.

All in all? Tris really gives it to Brooklyn on this record (it's been a long time coming), and then gives it back to Jersey. It's an excellent and welcome change from the usual emo and metal that we seem to crank out by the gross in these here parts (we grow such bands in those huge vats you see alongside the turnpike). It's smart, catchy, intelligent, and it's certainly worth your money. This record really nails to the wall the fakery, depression, delusion, and dog-eat-dog shittiness that you've got to deal with when everyone around you is Totally Going To Make It. This record was made for people who make music.

Links to preview and info on ordering over here.