oh! the review

i hung out with tate from the lionelle today. if tate were a mommy, the lionelle would be his baby. to call him the lead singer is like coloring a picture with only two crayons. calling him lead singer also assumes that much of what he does as front-man is singing, which is a highly discussed point of contention.

in the few lionelle shows i've been to, i've noticed that a portion of the crowd simply cannot handle that tate chooses to warble and shout when it's plainly obvious that he can sing normally. the difference here is that tate isn't aiming to sound like mae (or what mae tries to sound like after an afternoon with the auto-tuner). he could if he wanted. he just doesn't want to. if i'm not mistaken, isn't that rock and roll? knowing you're different and not caring?

at any rate, if tate was the mommy and the lionelle was his baby, oh! the company that we keep would be the babies' shiny new toy that isn't just shiny and new, but is actually a really great toy like one of those learning toys from germany that helps kids learn.

oh! isn't a local cd. the lionelle just happen to live here and record here. oh! sounds like it was made by people that make music for a living. it has rich textures, multiple layers, guest musicians, guest vocals and lots of fun in between. if it were a soup, it would be equal parts appleseed cast and mewithoutYou with a bit of bright eyes (bear in mind that i hate comparisons like this).

so here it is. they're throwing a FREE cd release party this saturday at slowtrain (i can't wait until they know we exist!). they'll have oh! available for $10 and the lionelle are playing with calico, tolchock trio and paul jacobsen. it's free and you should go. i can't.