Puzzle Quest – Remnants of the Orb, HYAH! – Vol. 1

Despite the fact that I have less and less time to review albums these days, I seem to be getting more and more sent to me.  Much of what I hear is not bad, even good, but doesn’t inspire me to set aside time to write a review.   In some cases, it just might be a genre I don’t feel knowledgeable enough to weigh in on.  In others, I was just way to busy with real life (see missed opportunities to write about the excellent semi-recent releases from Lonnie Walker and Jenny Besetzt).  Okay, maybe I’ve had a little writer’s block lately, too. :)

But recently, I’ve gotten a couple of releases that are pretty close to my musical sweet spots.  And they both just happen to come from within my own family.  The first is Remnants from the Orb by PuzzleQuest, from Champaign-Urbana, IL.  Look, whether or not my nephew was their drummer, any band that comes from the same town as Poster Children would have made my ears perk up. 

Remnants opens with a Minutemen-esque spiel (The New Flesh), a Pavement-slacker lament (Rick’s Gone), and a mellow stoner groove (Sequential Friends).   It hits on these styles throughout.  Fun pop-punk ditties are interspersed with jazzy jams, and Dale is just a pure pop gem. 

I read another review that said Puzzle Quest couldn’t decide on what they wanted to sound like on Remnants.  There’s some truth to that in that there’s a diversity of styles.  But to me, that’s part of the appeal.  I like not knowing what to expect next.  Wowee Zowee and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain jumped around so much – from wide-open twanginess to punk grinders to nightclub jitters – they gave you whiplash.  But those Pavement classics still worked as a cohesive units.  Likewise, Remnants of the Orb still “sounds” like Puzzle Quest throughout, and that sounds pretty good.

The second release is Vol. 1 from College Station, Texas band HYAH!  Another nephew (Eliot, keys), another college band.  Vol. 1 jumps around between funky grooves and indie-punk (their fb page appropriately describes their genre as “punkfunk”).  Annie is a little of both, with crunchy guitars merging with jazzy vocals and pop melodies.  Alaska is a really cool ‘60s party vibe (think more Peter Sellars The Party than Woodstock).  Dimples and Teeth’s fun punk reminds me of Wilmington’s late-great Free Clinic.  Angry Fish takes you on a 2-minute noise-weirdness-fest, before Vol. 1 closes with a couple of almost pure funk jams.  These guys might even be more schizophrenic than Puzzle Quest!  Did I already say that's a good thing?

Were it not for the family connections, I probably would never have heard of Puzzle Quest or HYAH!  But I gotta say, relatives or not, if they were locals, I’d definitely be hitting up their shows. 

Oh, did I say my niece is in a band, too?  Rally Owls.  Keep an ear out.  (I think musical talent must skip generations in my family)

Jon Lindsay - Cities and Schools

The first cut of Jon Lindsay’s Cities and Schools, All Them Houses, pops open like tray of Jiffy Pop.  You can immediately hear two things:  there’s a definite ‘80s retro vibe, and Lindsay is a master of melodies.

But his ‘80s touchstones are more aligned with pop-wave of bands like Split Enz, Squeeze, and XTC than the usual darker, punky influences kids wear on their sleeves these days.  There’s a middle ground between Bauhaus and Bananarama, you know.  Between The Killing Moon and Karma Chameleon.

But it’s not all oldschoolnewwave.  The album blends this synth-y vibe with a hefty dose of guitar crunch, really just coming off as power pop, not limited to any era.  See Lifer, When They Broke the World... well, pretty much all of it.

On Lifer, lyrics like “Your love is downtown! Downtown!” pair perfectly with such catchiness.  But a closer look belies the outward fluff; her “love” is her banking job, which has sucked her up to the exclusion of everything else.  Figures that Lindsay, maestro behind the overtly political NC Music Love Army and former Charlotte resident, would touch on the banking crisis... if only obliquely (and probably unintentionally).  But Cities and Schools never veers too far from the personal.  He complains on When They Broke the World not about the Great Recession, but that “they hurt my girl.”  One wonders if All Them Houses is influenced by the burst of the housing bubble, but it sounds more about that of a relationship.  Hugo gets more specifically personal, relating his life-changing childhood experience surviving that 1989 monster hurricane.  A little PTSD (or PHSD) therapy.  As a Gulf Coast refugee, I can definitely understand that.

But still, the sometimes dark personal musings are always delivered in a jumpy tone.  No.  Perhaps it’s more one of restlessness, a little anxiousness, running throughout.

Funky organ and syncopations provide welcome mid-album detours on A Couple More Boats and Jonny Outta Control.  Lindsay reserves his most bitter words for the record industry, on In Breach.  Biting lyrics abound:  “What’s it like not to have any friends that you don’t have to buy?”, “My greatest treasure is time, which you have frittered away”, “If you were covered in fire, I wouldn’t spit in your face.”  Ouch!

But when The Man tells him “Just give us every single thing we’re looking for” I’m thinking “What else COULD they be looking for?!?”  The songs on Cities and Schools hike a trail of ultra-catchy, melodic pop that’s hard to resist.  And one seldom traveled by other NC bands.  Maybe it’s considered too precious and precocious by today’s uber-jaded hipsters… I don’t know.  I DO know that after listening to Cities... a couple of times, the songs keep echoing in my head.  Isn’t that what you want?

Jon Lindsay and his band play a record release show for Cities and Schools at Raleigh’s Pour House on Saturday, June 11th, with The Old Ceremony opening.