Published on Feb 12, 1998
It’s rare when I do a review of an album in an information
vacuum. I usually have some solid information about an artist or
band before I slap their disc into one of the players in the Pierce
Archives (sorry, but we’re not accepting interns), be it liner
notes, bios in a press kit or something written about them in one
of the many reference books I use.
Then, there’s the case of New Jersey-based Dots Will Echo, led
by vocalist/guitarist Nick Berry. Sure, Nick was nice enough to
send some press clippings, but that’s where the trail stopped.
Reference books? No help. Liner notes?
What liner notes? (Unlike many discs, their latest,
Get Your Hands Off My Modem, You Weasel has no booklet, and
has minimal notes on the disc itself.) Fortunately, there’s the
Internet Underground Music Archive – a resource I’ve not often
used. Guess that will be changing.
If you didn’t read IUMA’s info on Dots Will Echo, you’d never
know that the band has no bassist. The trio of Berry,
keyboardist/vocalist Bob (God, I wish I knew last names!) and
drummer/vocalist Steve create such tremendous layers of audio and
feedback that you’d never know, much less care, that an instrument
was missing. And while this disc is definitely not for the
squeamish, it is an exciting slab of plastic that makes me wonder
why I didn’t latch onto these guys when their first album came out
on a Windham Hill subsidiary years ago.
Just how warped
are these guys? The CD starts numbering the tracks at 2 –
courtesy of a “hidden” track at the beginning of the disc. To hear
it, start playing the disc in your stereo (CD-ROM drives will not
work – I know, I’ve tried), push pause, and hold the scan backwards
key for a while. What you will hear for four minutes that, to the
disc, don’t exist is a mish-mash that would do artists like Frank
Zappa and John Cage proud. It’s bizarre, to be sure – but I got a
kick out of it.
When they get down to the pop songs, Dots Will Echo can best be
described as Cheap Trick on acid. The vocal harmonies of
“Wonderland At Last” blow me away every time I hear them, while “I
Feel Fine” and “T-E-L-E-Vision” and “I Feel Fine” are nice slabs of
pop that shouldn’t offend the traditional pop music fan. When you
get to the sonic orgasm that is “So What,” though, the pop purists
should be seen running for the exits. Too bad – they won’t know
what they’re missing.
And who else would think to combine Erik Satie with pop culture
on the uncredited 99th track, where the theme from “The
Flintstones” is done in classical piano format? This one takes a
little patience (as well as a basic knowledge of the original tune
– if you want to understand the joke without breaking out the
classical collections, pick up the self-titled release by Blood,
Sweat & Tears), and the joke wears thin upon repeat listenings,
but it is a decent one-shot deal.
Wait, you’re asking – did he say track
99? Keep reading, Grasshopper…
There are really only two mis-fires on
Get Your Hands Off My Modem, You Weasel. “Within Or Without
You” is, according to one press clipping I read, a Beatles cover –
if it is, it sure didn’t sound like any Beatles song I recognized.
As a pop song, it’s okay – as a cover, even an interpretation, it’s
lacking. (I also think the practice of stretching a song for
multiple tracks – in this case, tracks 9 through 96 – is a joke
that has run its course to the point of being overused. C’mon,
guys, all you’re doing is confusing the hell out of my equipment –
and it doesn’t like being confused.)
And while I’ve eluded to the Cage influences, I don’t know why
anyone would choose to cover Cage’s “4′ 33″”. When you get to this
track, don’t panic if you hear nothing – that’s the whole point.
Cage meant for this to be a song with no noise other than
background sounds from the studio – no music, no vocals, nothing.
(This threw me for a loop on the second listen – I forgot the track
was on this disc.) So, unless you need a four-and-a-half-minute
break from any music, you can safely hit the “forward” button on
the CD player without worrying about missing anything.
This is still a very fun and interesting disc to listen to – in
one sense, I wonder why Dots Will Echo still remains hidden in the
world of independent music. If
Get Your Hands Off My Modem, You Weasel is a sign of things
to come, their status should be changing soon.