The Strange Boys’ third album, Live Music, translates the state of Texas into the language of southern rock. It is a soundtrack for freeway stretches, steakhouses, and country bars – in other words, the pedestal elements of Texas, its identifying birthmarks and scars.
Live Music is not Texas-themed – in a lyrical sense, for example – but that it is aurally in tune with its region, a perfect example of country rock, southern rock, or Texas rock – whatever genres of this vast family.
The title of the album might mislead a little bit, because Live Music is a studio album – “live” as in “to live,” not as in “recorded live.” The album also comes out of two studios: Side A was recorded in Spoon’s Jim Eno’s house, and Side B was recorded in Mike McHugh’s Distillery. The two sides of the album don’t necessarily differ from each other beyond the origins of their recordings; it does not sound like two EPs forced together. That being said, let’s cut the album in half – its Side A and Side B.
A lively piano paves a road for Side A’s first track, “Me and You,” which is also one of the more exciting tracks on the album – it also might be the best track on the album. Afterwards, “Walking Two by Two” brings on a firm country sound – that includes some harmonica work when vocalist Ryan Sambol isn’t singing.
For the most part, the tracks we encounter on Live Music probably will not surprise you; although, solid moments crop up throughout the first half, such as in “Punk’s Pajamas,” “Omnia Boa,” and “Saddest”; but that’s not saying that Live Music is bland. It is reliable, because it uses what works.
“My Life Beats Me” kicks off Side B. It is a very pleasant song with saxophones quietly playing in the background. “Right Before” is notably bluesier than most of the album. In the way that most of the album is exemplarily southern and country, this track builds itself with some of the fundamental sounds of the blues.
Another interesting track on Side B is the closer, “Opus,” which is an instrumental track that neatly ends the album. It is continual movements from southern fun into a country state – back again and forwards again, much like the changes between most of the tracks.
The Strange Boys have created an album fit for a certain space on the shelf. Whether Live Music is a top-rate album or not may very well depend on when you listen to it, where you listen to it, and how you listen to it. And that’s not in the sense of all music – different people have different tastes – but in the sense of Texas itself: Sometimes you just don’t want to be in Texas, because its wide plains and country décor are painfully boring. But there are also those times when you are ambushed by a craving for Texas, like a craving for specific weather – this spell on the brain is similar to what Live Music might do as it sits in your music library.
By Timothy Michel
