Showing posts with label Big Star. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Star. Show all posts

Oct 9, 2018

Album Review / The Pollies / Transmissions

by Matthew Martin

The Pollies have had a busy, if somewhat quiet career since their debut came out in 2012.  They've released 1 other full-length album, have backed Chris Porter on an EP, and have, of late, been backing Dylan LeBlanc around the US and Europe.  In that time they have stretched their musical muscles and expanded the sounds that made their first two albums so intriguing.  Now, they have released the retro, but positively modern, new album Transmissions.

With pulsing synths opening up the album, the Pollies let you know that a band from a place with rich musical history (Muscle Shoals, AL) can still shatter what it means to be a Southern band.  While decidedly Southern sounding on most of the album, there are moments of freakouts such as the midway point and end of "Knocking At My Door."  These are well-served and welcomed additions to these songs, adding a layer of intrigue to the perfectly crafted pop songs on the album.  (To be fair, I've always been a fan of any sort of freakout moment on an album, so maybe I'm just biased.)

Jay Burgess and crew have started to hone their hook skills with beautiful rock songs like "Love's To Fault" and "Hold On My Heart."  Burgess's voice is perfect to carry across these songs of loving and longing.  You know how Lindsay Buckingham is the only person who could ever sing "Tusk?"  Burgess's voice just ties all of these songs together with his raspy, wistful voice.  Listen to "Lonely" and try to not be moved.  


At their core, The Pollies have always been a pop rock band with tendencies to stretch out songs.  Southern pop rock has always been a rather unglorified but important genre.  Bands like Big Star put Southern pop rock on the map, but there are a number of bands emulating that style today (one other that comes to mind is Belle Adair out of AL, as well).  The Pollies are carrying that torch and making that sound all their own.  

If I had one complaint, I would say that I almost wish "You Want It" was a bit muted on the synths.  It's an interesting inclusion, and I almost like the addition.  But, it gets to be a bit glaring and doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the album.  The rest of the songs are incredibly well thought out and balanced.  "You Want It" misses that mark, for me.  

Still, Transmissions is worth the price of admission.  You won't be disappointed with the contents.  This is an album of perfect summer tunes- almost wish I had the whole summer back to enjoy this one with the windows down or out on the river.  In a different life, The Pollies would be getting their due on the radio, but that is not the world we live in.  Instead, you should go out, buy this and every other Pollies album, and share or buy one for your friends/family.  

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Transmissions is available on Bandcamp, Amazon, Spotify, etc. 


Mar 10, 2016

Robbie Fulks and Friends Cover Big Star

From Robbie's recent I Heart Alex Chilton show in Chicago. Forgive me for not knowing who does lead vocals on this, but I assume it's one of these guys: Liam Davis, Gerald Dowd, Casey McDonough. Anyway, awesome cover!

Sep 25, 2015

Not Here: The Pollies, Jay Burgess Defy Convention, Raise Bar

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The Pollies. Jay Burgess, second from left, in ugly hat.
By Kevin Broughton

During its print heyday, No Depression magazine made playful fun of the genre of music it had helped define. Each issue would contain a mini-mission statement, the first half of which varied. It might be “shining the light on alt-country,” or “examining alt-country,” but it always concluded the same way: “whatever that is.”

Alt-country, roots rock, Americana…all have been used to attempt to classify or categorize a sub-genre of music that continually evades the pigeon-holing.  Hard to define, but not unlike a Supreme Court Justice’s self-definition of “pornography,” most of us know it when we hear it. But what happens when the edgy becomes mainstream?

“It seems like here lately, Americana is being taken over by folks popping up trying to sound too Americana,” says Pollies front man Jay Burgess. “Maybe it’s subconscious.  And don’t get me wrong, we don’t have a problem being classified as ‘Americana.’ It’s just…” he trails off.

Fitting, as the Pollies’ second album, Not Here eludes any neat classification. Steady, poignant songwriting, tight arrangements and artful production are the constants that make it a compelling record, regardless of classification.

The album, a joint distribution between Single Lock Records and Thirty Tigers (Jason Isbell, Avett Brothers, Jonathan Tyler) opens in a big way. “’Jackson’ is a song we’d been working on and playing for about a year,” Burgess says. “When we got to the studio, we wanted to go back and make it bigger and symphonic. I knew we wanted some strings and a Mellotron in it.” And symphonic it is, along with much of the album, owing to the production’s vision.

Pollies keyboardist Ben Tanner – who splits time with Alabama Shakes – is, like Burgess, a recording engineer. “Ben and I have been friends a long time. I couldn’t make a record without him,” Burgess says.  It’s hard to imagine Not Here without him, especially hearing “Paperback Books,” a longing, ethereal tune that manages to evoke a big, sweeping Pink Floyd sound with just enough pedal-steel lonesome twang.

It’s obvious Burgess and Tanner had definite ideas of the sound they wanted to capture when they went in the studio. There’s a purposeful, deliberate feel to the whole record, reminiscent of what Chris Bell and Alex Chilton accomplished on the tragically under-heard Number One Record from Big Star.

The varied arrangements give Burgess ample opportunity to showcase a wide vocal range. Other critics’ comparisons to Gram Parsons aren’t overstated, particularly on the coincidentally named “She.” His voice can be edgy or melodic, but it’s always poignant.

Burgess, like mentor and friend Isbell, hails from tiny Greenhill, Alabama and is part of the latest generation of Muscle Shoals-area musicians eager to make their marks. (Note: Birmingham music journalist Blake Ells has written a fine book, The Muscle Shoals Legacy of Fame, that chronicles the continual, multi-generational torch-passing of musical legacies; find it.) The common link between Burgess and Isbell was Mr. McCombs, the school music teacher. He left the two with a musical bond that lasted.

“Jason’s always inspired me,” Burgess told Ells. “To me, he’s always been that popular. When he blew up, it was almost like it wasn’t anything new to me. He was a big deal already.” On Isbell’s first couple of solo tours, he made room for the Pollies (or Burgess’s former outfit, the Sons of Roswell) to open shows when possible. It was instructive. “I saw that someone like Jason could have a bad night. I was lucky to see first-hand that not everybody sells out every show.”

The Pollies will have their chance to sell out their own shows on the forthcoming tour. The album’s been finished almost a year, recorded, ironically, outside the friendly confines of Muscle Shoals. “Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi offered us a little bit of a deal,” Burgess says. “We wanted to make sure everybody playing on the record was in the same room. We slept at the studio.” It made for an old-school recording experience.

“It’s crazy, but we didn’t have a computer in the studio,” he says. “It makes you use your ears. You can look at the knob all you want to, but you’ve got to turn it yourself.”

The finished product is worthy of the studio that’s cranked out some great work by Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, Blue Mountain and Jimbo Mathus, and has taken on the moniker “Muscle Shoals West.”

But regardless of the place, another page has been turned in the rich history of the Muscle Shoals Sound. The Pollies have skin in the game, and a record that leaves no doubt they’ve arrived. 


Not Here is available on Amazon, iTunes, and from the Single Lock site.

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