Published on Jan 11, 2001
The music industry is filled with bands who will never make it
past the garage, as well as bands who probably will never rise
above being local heroes. It’s not that these bands are bad, or
that they don’t have the talent needed to rise to the next level.
It’s just that some of them don’t differentiate themselves from the
rest of the pack, and their own unique work ends up sounding like
so many other groups out there.
I hate declaring a band to be like this, especially a group who
is trying to work their way up. So, allow me to apologize to the
Mike Farley Band from Cleveland, Ohio, for what I’m going to say
about their sophomore independent disc
halfaworldaway. You’re not bad by any sense of the word, but
I don’t get a sense that I’m hearing anything unique or special in
your music.
The group – vocalist/acoustic guitarist Mike Farley, lead
guitarist/backing vocalist Jeff Nagel, bassist/backing vocalist
Jeff Beam and drummer/backing vocalist Joe Rohan – have a pleasant
enough mode of operation. Their music sounds like a cross betweeen
the acoustic stylings of Hootie & The Blowfish and the
alternative bend of Duncan Sheik. On paper, that’s not a
bad-sounding combination, and musically it’s decent enough. Where
the problem comes in is that Farley and crew not only don’t add
enough of their own flavor to the mixture, but they can’t keep it
sounding interesting to the listener.
And it’s not that they’re not trying. Tracks like “When It All
Comes Down,” “She’s Alone Tonight” and “Secrets” all show that the
Mike Farley Band is committed to making a name for themselves in
the pop-rock vein. But the bulk of the material here just isn’t
exciting enough to grab someone’s attention and make them want to
sit down for the 45 minutes
halfaworldaway demands of them.
Some tracks, like “Can’t Be Your Man” and “3000 Miles,” just
fall short of the target, and have inklings of what could have been
decent tracks. Others, like “Comes With A Conscience” and “Iowa”
(what is it with indie bands singing about Iowa these days?) fail
to catch the listener’s ear at all.
For all this, I neither want to declare
halfaworldaway a failure nor the Mike Farley Band as
dreamers. If anything, I’d prefer to look at this disc as a decent
but flawed effort, and hope that with time logged on the road and
in the studio, everything will naturally come together. It just
hasn’t happened on this disc, but that doesn’t mean it’s not
possible. And there are enough moments on this disc to suggest to
me that it all will eventually gel for the Mike Farley Band. Until
then, it’s best to put them back in the oven and let the band
simmer for about another six to twelve months.