SOUNDTRACK: WALKING ON CARS-Colours (2019).
Walking on Cars drummer Evan Hadnett cited some pretty heavy bands as influences in the Irish Drummers book. But also noted how important Irish trad music was to Irish drummers. None of the songs on this album are as heavy or fast as anyone he talked about, but you can hear the anthemic power of those bands.
I hadn’t heard of Walking on Cars and I’m kind of surprised by that because they seems like they could have been really big. They just called it quits after releasing the 2020 EP Clouds.
But Colours pushes every button for anthemic angst pop. I’m hearing Imagine Dragons, The Head and the Heart, Of Monsters and Men. and that’s just in the first song, “Monster.” A huge chorus and dramatic vocal chops are only the beginning. “Waiting on the Corner” has some processed “oohs” that could be an immediate hook.
Most of the songs are filled with intense angst–Patrick Sheehy’s voice is gravelly and passionate–“she’s in love with somebody else–someone who won’t let her down” (“Somebody else”) and “I was looking for a friend / And it all came to an end / But I survived, yeah I survived” (“Coldest Water”). His voice is also prominent in the mix “yeah it as better when we were kids” (“When We Were Kids”), where he also throws in some angsty falsetto.
“Two Straight Lines” plays simple guitar lines off of electronic washes and “Too Emotional” is even poppier than the other songs. “One Last Dance” features co-lead vocals with pianist Sorcha Durham (I’m surprised there weren’t more prominent female vocals on other songs). Paul Flannery rounds out the band on bass and vocals. The final song “Pieces of You” ends the album with a big piano ballad.
The big surprise to me about thee songs is that they’re all pretty short. The longest tracks on the record are just over three and a half minutes and the whole album is just over half an hour. It seems like an album full of over the top anthemic bangers might stretch out and maybe overstay its welcome. But this record is efficient.
It seems like the band is ending their career on a high note. They’d been together for ten years and played around the world (although never the U.S. it seems). I imagine if they’d gotten this album in the right hands they could have definitely opened for one of those earlier mentioned bands here.
[READ: February 15, 2021] Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo
I saw this series at the library and thought it looked promising–I rather liked the cover art work.
So I was quite surprised to open it and find it in black and white.
A skeleton seems to have come to life and is walking with a mass of other skeletons through the woods. They all seem to know their destination but our skeleton does not. Then a song begins and sings of his plight. It tells of the Road to Epoli.
Then the book switches to color and Rickety Stitch is seen sleeping on a rack.
He is rudely awoken by an angry man. The man is angry because Rickety Stitch is sleeping when he should be cleaning their torture dungeon. But Rickety Stitch isn’t much for working. Neither is his friend Goo (the Gelatinous cube).
They are brought in front of Mrs Wozinski who fires them and kicks them out of the castle–never to set foot in it again.
Rickety Stitch finds a gig at an open mic show–he’s not a worker, he’s a bard, a storyteller, a singer. Although the crowd disagrees with that designation. They gang up on him after the show and one of them puts his sword through Rickety Stitch. They learn, as wdo we (as does he) that he cannot be killed.
When Rickety and Goo finally rest, Rickety reveals that he doesn’t know anything about himself–who he was before he turned into a skeleton or even how long he has been this way. It is time fo a quest! To find himself!
While on the road they are passed by a woman flying a blue flag.
Meanwhile we see an imp fluttering around. His name is Zigglidorglmorkin. And he has spied Rickety and Goo. There’s some hilarious moments where Ricety can’t say Ziggy’s name and the imp gets really frustrated.
The imp decides to help them on their quest “Looking for yourself? You’re right here. I found you). But the imp is easily annoyed buy Rickety (he hates the singing). The imp helps them through the woods until they finally reach the castle of hie liege, The King of Grimly Wood.
But the King proves to be Golo the Gargantuan, Ogre-Spawn of Gordak, Glutton King of Grimly Wood. And he plans to eat whomever the imp brings to the castle. It turns out that Ziggy isn’t really bad, he is just terrified of Goro.
But Goro is none too happy about getting a skeleton–where’s all the meat?
When Rickety Starts singing, Goro hatches a devious plan. Using that song, Rickety could bring a faerie man to him. If Goro were able to eat this particular freeie man, he would be freed from his current plight.
What’s to ensure that Rickety does it? Well, Goro is just going to have to keep Goo.
Ziggy and Rickety head out in search of the faerie man who is a gnome. And luckily for them, Ziggy can make disguises. He turns himself into a gnome and he gives Rickety a mustache.
They arrive at the gnome’s house. His name is L. Nerman Fuddle and he is very impressed with Rickety Stitch’s song. So they invite him to a concert at Goro’s castle. That was easy.
En route back to the castle they encounter Xorgana the unicorn. She is warden of the wood and she agrees to help them through the woods which are particularly dangerous right now.
As they get through the woods, things get more serious until Fuddle reveals that he knew Ziggy was an imp all along–but he doesn’t know who Rickety is. When Rickety says he doesn’t know either, they agree to work together.
Turns out Fuddle is well aware of Goro and he knows that he is more powerful than the ogre. So he is more than willing to go to Goro’s castle. What he doesn’t know is that an imp can never fully be trusted and this imp has a magic stone that renders all gnomes powers moot.
There’s going to be showdown before book 2.
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