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BANDS: Punk
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Bill
Foreman: Chevy with Balding Tires
Bill Foremans Chevy w/Balding Tires is not just intended as a music CD. Its emphasis on storytelling and the detailed booklet containing lyrics, quotes, and scene development indicate that this is much more than a collection of pop diversions or meaningless three-chord rock. Instead, drawing from the singer-songwriter genre and such inspirations as Bob Dylan and Nebraska-mode Bruce Springsteen, Foreman strives to create a concept album of the highest order a real artistic statement that moves, provokes, and inspires. Each song on the album is linked by road directions guiding the listener around the town of Riverside, CA, looking in on the lives of ten or so odd characters each with their own story to tell. These stories and characters are all independent of one another, but they are linked by Foremans depiction of their hard-luck, hopeless lives. One might call it a small-town musical version of Magnolia or Short Cuts. The title track begins the album with what at first seems like a West Coast version of a Bruce Springsteen song a blue-collar tale of cars, girls, and rebellion. However, upon closer inspection, it is not so much a profession of devotion to a Wendy or a Mary as it is a cynical dismissal of hope and dreams the protagonists girl fucks him over, and the nasty imperfections of life come roaring into focus. The album continues by examining stories of characters of a variety of backgrounds and ethnicities. A couple are humorous (To an Angry Pot Farmer concerns what happens when a hiker stumbles across a hemp crop in the hills outside Riverside), but most are consistent in their depiction of tales of murder and woe amongst the hopeless. Depression, lost hope, broken dreams, and especially low expectations are the norm for these characters. We visit a promising young girl who cannot fulfill her fathers dream of getting a college education; instead, she repeats her deadbeat mothers cycle of getting pregnant and married and then eventually abandoning her family, only to realize its all too clear Im a stooge / Im a bottom-feeder (Out and Upward). The Caddy is the tale of a young black man whose mother hopes he achieves better than his convict brothers. Instead, he is driven by constant insults and racial discrimination to beat a rich golfer to death with a sand wedge, and he ends up in jail right alongside his brothers. Mexican migrant workers and Army servicemen populate the songs; alcoholism, depression, racial tension, and poverty are their themes. The music itself is mostly straightforward Bob Dylan or Elvis Costello rough-edged rocknroll that places an emphasis on simple melodies and lyrical development. When the instrumentation diverges from typical guitar/bass/drums, it takes a distinctly ethnic turn, with mandolins, whistles and an organ providing at times Irish or Mexican flair. The songs are heartfelt and hummable. In the end, the characters and the stories are the focus. The introductory quotes included in the textual materials put these stories into a cultural and philosophical context one of freedom vs. slavery, of the importance of freeing ourselves artistically, economically, and culturally from the restrictions of society and its expectations. In each of these stories lies a bit of the author. His thesis is that you can see some piece of yourself everywhere, in all of these characters and their tales of woe. Chevy w/ Balding Tires is a bold, intelligent, thoughtful, hard-hitting album, and one that is worthy of immediate critical attention. Every single person who reads this review should proceed directly to General Ludd Music where the entire album is available for download at no cost.
This album can be purchased at General Ludd Music LEFT OFF THE DIAL's Bill Foreman page About LOTD Contact/Staff Advertise Home All content © LEFT OFF THE DIAL 2001-2005. All rights reserved. |
