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Balsa Gliders: Cookout
Visitors to Left Off The Dial often ask me why I decided to lump Virginia, North Carolina, and Washington DC together, call it the mid-Atlantic, and concentrate on music from there. The Balsa Gliders are the perfect example. So many kids who attend colleges in Virginia and North Carolina end up in Washington DC upon graduation, particularly those in bands. As a musician, it is simply easier to have your music heard in a city like DC. Still, most of these bands keep influences and sounds that are very much rooted in their college towns. Once again, the Balsa Gliders are the perfect example. In fact, listening to Cookout was like a brief return
to college for me. On first listen,
its the lyrics of this disc that stick out the most. It would have been too easy to discount the Balsa Gliders as
one of those bands that writes silly lyrics (i.e. They Might Be Giants, Cake).
After a couple more listens, I realized that what the band has actually
done is written an episodic collection of songs about everyday college-life
anecdotes, and they just happen to be quite comical.
In fact, I found myself laughing out loud quite often as I listened.
Having gone to a college in the ACC myself, I can certainly relate to
having to choose between going to your friends concert or watching Duke
bow out to Florida in just the third round.
The Balsa Gliders simply saw it fit to write music about these sorts of
things; in fact, theyve succeeded in writing a collection of songs that any
college kid can relate to. I dont want to spend this whole review talking about Cookouts
lyrics since there is a great deal more to the Balsa Gliders music, but
perhaps because I happen to be fresh out of college, the lyrics really stayed
with me. The second track starts
off, I cant sleep, I cant eat; I need an antihistamine Although I
again laughed out loud, the song actually went on to compare the annoyance of a
stuffy nose to the annoyance of living in a stuffy college town, creating some
sort of allergic metaphor that actually managed to avoid coming off as
completely ridiculous! The songs
are truly original and completely relatable. The Balsa Gliders have a lot more going for them than just
their witty lyrics. Most of Cookout
blends pleasant acoustic guitar with harmonizing vocals. This creates a light
melodic sound, and has the band wearing its Southern college rock influences on
its sleeve (even singing about them in songs).
The chiming electric guitar in Cookouts songs is mainly used to
maintain that jangle sound that never really died in places like North Carolina,
where all of the Balsa Gliders attended college.
The alt-country sound shines through occasionally in Cookout, as
the lead singers voice sounds a bit like Jay Farrars. Cookout comes highly recommended to anyone who never stopped
listening to the abundance of Southern jangle pop bands of the 1980s and, of
course, to anyone who likes to reminisce about his/her college days.
Ironically, the Balsa Gliders recently signed to a Boston-based
indie label, Intelligent Records, which is pushing the record throughout the
Northeast. However, it seems to me that the disc has its best chance of success
in the South where both a jangly, folksy sound and lyrics such as they
drove from Richmond with some punk rock typesdown I-85 can be fully
appreciated.
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