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Marc Benning (vocals, guitar), Marc Smith (guitar, vocals), Mark Boquist (drums, percussion), and Mike Santoro (bass, vocals) have managed to create a CD that will put a lot of smiles on collegiate faces as well as find plenty of playing time in frat houses and dorm rooms around the country. The music on Stop is unabashed college rock - - energetic, just Indie enough to remain accessible yet clever, and with musical elements that bridge the emotional gap between the last vestiges of high school angst and that exhilarating first realization of personal autonomy. In other words, it's done right, but, more importantly, it's also done well. The first three tracks on the disc - - "elijah st. marie," "get out alive," and "coming in clearer" - - hit hard with their swirling guitars, catchy melodies, and ebullience, which pretty much sets the tone for the entire CD; in fact, in my opinion, there is not a single song on this 13 track disc that should be overlooked by college radio, or, hell, commercial radio for that matter. After even the most cursory listen, the parallels to Fountains of Wayne are immediately apparent in the overall sound of 34 Satellite, and I'm sure, from the little I was able to decipher, the lyrical content is also similarly acerbic. "Charleston," which, to my disappointment, is not about the city in South Carolina, has a choppy rhythm and simplistic lyrics such as "What's the capital of West Virginia/What's that movie with that guy and the girl we adored?" that sticks in your head like a mutant strain of "Happy Together" - - not that the two songs sound anything alike, mind you, it's only the effect they share. But the two songs that most impressed me were "there is gonna be a problem" and "smoke from a funeral." "There is gonna be a problem" could very possibly be the theme song of most stalkers, but what really grabbed my attention was the musical similarity it had to my all-time favorite rock group Big Country. The interaction of the bass and drum as well as the swirling, high-pitched play of the guitars sounded almost exactly like that vastly underrated Scottish quartet. Then on "smoke from a funeral," a song that starts off with a cacophony that I can only describe as what might have been produced had Charles Ives gotten his hands on an electric guitar, certain verses are punctuated by a classically structured guitar run. Very unique and hard to forget. 34 Satellite may no longer be straight-forward alt.-country, country-rock, or whatever the hell you want to call it, but they are a very entertaining and talented group that simply plays good modern rock music. And no, that's not an oxymoron. Pick up a copy of Stop, and you'll hear that it does, indeed, exist. *Gravitate on over to www.34satellite.com
to check out a biography of the band as well as to find tour
dates and hear clips from Stop, or www.hideawaymusic.com
to pick up your own copy. |
At one point in time
the boys of 34 Satellite were considered by many to be part of
the alt.-country movement; at least that's what I've been able
to glean from the All Music Guide and various reviews I've read
about their debut release Radar. But somewhere between
that release and their latest offering, Stop, the quartet
from the land of the silver bullet apparently decided they needed
to put a little distance between themselves and the comparisons
to Tom Petty, Son Volt, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The V-Roys,
Jayhawks, The Bottle Rockets, and John Cougar, to name a few.
So they turned their ship toward the Indie isles, where many
bands seem to be washing up these days, and they've come damn
close to reaching their destination, because they no longer sound
like anyone from the aforementioned group; instead, on Stop,
34 Satellite now has much more in common with Matthew Sweet,
Fountains of Wayne, and Flickerstick.
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