Monday, April 14, 2008

CD Review: The Connection’s self-titled album

By Arin Whittington

The Connection

Superbowl Sunday 2008: We were making a trek north all the way up to Carrollton - God, it sucks up there. Anyways, it was hot, in February! We stopped for a case of beer. Yeah, just one case, we already had four bottles of wine in the car; so I had shorts on, the sun was shining, we had been alerted that the brisket was in the oven in Carrollton, and "Summertime Vibe" from The Connection was on the stereo. Who and what you say? They're local and it's a great song.

My first impression of The Connection's first, self-titled album was, "Hey, a Jack Johnson bootleg?" When trying to imagine this Dallas band's sound, think strummed acoustic guitar; sparse, yet smooth and full-bodied. Like a good beer. Combined with vocals and "percussion", the simple interaction has an easy-listening outcome. I use parenthesis around percussion, because the drum "machine" on these tracks is an actual live beat boxer. I don't know what you'll think about that, but I'm down with it. Granted, he is one of only two beat boxers who I know about, but I think he's pretty damn good. Make up your own mind as you listen to Travis's beat box solo on the 9th track, "Roman." My kid thinks that Travis is even better than Matisyahu!

ummm, looks like Copasetic Ballyhoo

I feel as though all the songs on the album, which is well under 30 minutes of runtime, are too short. You can listen to the whole thing if you ever have to drive up to Carrollton! And while the production quality may be sub par, and sure some of the songs may indeed sound like they were written in a hurry, there are others that groove and shouldn't be missed, like "Summertime Vibe." "Connection," the last track on the album, is distinctive and quite different from the rest of the songs. Give it a listen, too. I particularly love the chord changes and Travis's sound on this one. "Change" and "Elements" are the other highlights on the album. Both are chocked full of what these guys do - jam with catchy guitar riffs, rhythm, and solid vocal accompaniment.

Keep your eyes on them and buy their tracks off of their MySpace page for $.89 and cheaper (I love that feature!). It's good to hear that they are back from their overseas tour, and hard at work writing more songs and open to new ideas. Keep writing, guys, and listen to more Ben Harper! The groove is smooth! And, could someone please send me the video of the Brett Dennen cover they do? The dreaded "We're sorry, this video is no longer available" YouTube error persists on their page and I really want to hear it!

This review was submitted by a member of the Pegasus News community.

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Comments

Erin Rice Staff

Ask and ye shall receive:

2 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )