EDITORS NOTE: Over the next few weeks I will be chronicling some of the bands that I like to refer to as unsung heroes of the Indie Rock world. Bands which are, by no definition, unsuccessful, just bands that don’t get the amount of praise and/or recognition which they deserve. These columns will be lengthy, but I encourage you to read them in all of their self-serving glory in order to better know me as a music lover.
The way that I love Centro-matic, South San Gabriel, and Will Johnson’s solo music is so deep, so cavernous, so fathomlessly huge, so intensely deep-rooted and enthusiastic, that I feel I must explain it linearly and piecemeal, rather than telling you in a few sentences why you should too. That, I feel, is a testimony to why I have such a cavernous spot in my heart for Centro-matic and all affiliated projects.
There are a few bands which I go through phases of obsession with. That’s not to say I don’t always love them, it’s just that every once in a while I’ll remember why I love them in such a profound way that I’ll want nothing to grace my ears but their music for days, weeks, and sometimes months at a time. To say that Centro-matic is one of those bands would be a severe understatement. Centro-matic started in the late 90’s in Denton, Texas. I’ll spare you the rest of their history, as you can watch it in the video below, but that bit is important to know.
I was reading a column by John Roderick last night, one of his weekly columns for the Seattle Weekly, in which he talks a bit about Centro-matic’s success. They are a band which, by no means, has been unsuccesful, but they’ve flown under many a radar in the last 11 years. Centro-matic is dependable: they tour almost endlessly, hitting just about every viable market for an Indie Rock band on sveral continents and some completely unviable ones. Their live shows are an unstoppable force of nature, the kind of thing that could make an investment banker sell his BMW, buy a ’72 Telecaster and start a rock band. This is not because of any form of theatrics, any measure of hype surrounding them, or any other fleeting sense of “awesome” that so many Indie Rock bands scrape by on. No, Centro-matic is an amazing show to catch because they roll into town, find some mexican food, see a baseball game, and play 80 minutes of heartbreaking, balls to the wall, pretentionless rock and roll music. Melodies which constantly make me go “how did they do that” only to learn they did that with an easy chord progression, deceptively great lyrics, and an inate and completely unteachable sense of melody.
Will Johnson has always made me smile. Were you to be introduced to him through his recorded voice and biography you’d expect a towering, burly, mess of a man. A Texan with a whiskey-and-cigarettes voice, a soft spot for singing about chemical burns and space shuttles, and a band of impossibly sound rock musicians backing him up. Were you to be shown video footage of Will Johnson singing from the neck up, you’d think the same thing. He sings in the same way that a grizzly bear eats a salmon, in an almost terrifying and hard to explain method of corner-of-the-mouth singing and teeth gritting. Will Johnson is, however, about the size of a golden retriever on it’s hind-legs, and couldn’t weigh more than 140 pounds. He is a complete whirlwind on stage who won’t think twice about playing a face-melter while hopping on one foot, however the next song may find him doing a dance called the toaster oven for a crowd of cheering girlfriends and jealous drunk guys.
Scott Danbom comes across as shy and reserved, but give the guy a few beers and a keyboard and he’ll be making Little Richard look like John Tesh in no time. Scott doesn’t as much play the piano as he does beat the life out of it on more upbeat numbers, and somehow never slips a pinky on to a dissonant F#. If you catch him on a slower song, or a South San Gabriel tune though, he’ll be unassumingly playing an organ patch with unparalleled grace or filling the room with life-changing sorrow through a violin.
Matt Pence is a ferocious, fearless, and completely unmesswithable drummer. Matt plays the drums with such effortless ease that I often go home after listening to a Centro record in the car and play my Ludwig kit only to be heartbroken that I will, in fact, never be as shruggingly great as he is at playing said instrument. Matt is also the person behind the flawless production of Centro-matic records: untouched when it needs to be, and stamped with personality when it’s apropriate.
Mark Hedman quietly rotates between electric guitars and bass guitar during a Centro-matic live show, and if you’re not paying attention to sound sources you’ll forget he’s there for a second. You’ll remember he’s there however when you hear a simple bass line tie a song together in a way you couldn’t imagine or hear a melodic guitar line which makes you remember that, despite being a rock and roll band from Texas, Centro-matic makes a beautiful and often heartbreaking breed of American Indie Rock.
I had the pleasure of seeing Centro-matic play to a sold out and adoring hometown crowd in Denton, Texas earlier this summer, and though the two times I’ve seen them in Nashville have had anything but thin and unenthusiastic audiences, it wasn’t until this time that I truly got what people love about Centro-matic. They don’t insult their listener with pretension – there’s no light show, there’s no ironic outfits, there’s no staged theater to their performance. There are just 4 guys with awe-inspiring senses of melody, harmony, rhythm, and silence playing rock music as fiercely, intently, and devoted as they did the first time, and as hard, focused, and recklessly as they will the last time. In a culture dominated by next-big-thing’s armed with toy keyboards, ironic mustaches, and amateur songwriting abilities, it’s nice to have bands like Centro-matic around. Bands that have very real and very devoted fans, not just curious blog followers who want to catch the flavor of the month while they can.
That’s why I love Centro-matic.
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[mp3] Centro-matic – Two Seats, Gold Reserved
[mp3] Centro-matic – Huge in Every City
[mp3] Centro-matic – Not Forever Now
[mp3] Centro-matic – Fountains of Fire
Buy Centro-matic music here.
Our favorite Texans, Centro-matic, and their slightly larger, slightly more orchestral, and slightly more sensitive alter-ego South San Gabriel will hit the road for a few dates on the East Coast and Southeast. Besides being wonderful news for me, this is wonderful news for any of you in the cities below. Seriously, you better be there.
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