Future Blues (For Me And You) by The Piano Creeps
By carlyp • Sep 24th, 2008 • Category: Music Reviews
Future Blues (For Me and You) by The Piano Creeps
To be released in October 2008 on Kora Records
“Pretty” is what comes to mind when I listen to the Piano Creeps next release Future Blues (For Me And You), due out in October on The Kora Records. The Piano Creeps is a trio consisting of Billy Cote, Kathy Ziegler, and Mary Lorson, all of which are involved in other projects. Their myspace page describes them as “sounds like your big sister likes the Carpenters and she hooked up with some King Crimson fan you don’t quite like…..and they started a band…. and now they’re the shizzy.” I think this is hilarious and fairly accurate (although I hear more Carpenters than King Crimson, but okay.)
Future Blues is a very mellow album heavy with female harmonies, a variety of keys, to no surprise, but it’s not lacking variety in other aspects with varying acoustic/electric guitars and I believe I heard a banjo and an accordion (did I make that up?) on a few tracks.
Even though I enjoyed this album to some degree upon first listen, I was almost ready to file it as “pretty background music,” but then the last track “Stoned” came on and it made me rethink the whole thing. It’s sparsely arranged acoustic and electric guitar, organ, tambourine and perfectly limited harmonies on the chorus of “Stoned by the way you are.” I played it over again, of course, and then I re-listened to the rest of the album and was able to appreciate it much more. Other notable tracks are “Hey Love,” “Time On You,” and “He Likes The Light.”
I can’t write this review without mentioning the very oddball track, “Hovercraft.” It’s the only track with male vocals that I can only assume are Cote’s. It’s basically two minutes of spoken word over piano beats and female “la la la’s” narrating an attempt to build a hovercraft and it reminds me of Morcheeba. I like bands with a sense of humor and based on this track and The Piano Creeps’ self-description above, I have decided that they definitely have a sense of humor, which only makes the album better. And rather than filing them away as “pretty background music” I’ll be keeping them in rotation and keeping an eye out for a tour?
