Centro-matic...

There's absolutely no reason that Centro-Matic shouldn't be playing to packed houses while being lauded by critics. Will Johnson is one of our best young songwriters and whether he's streaming his talents through Centro-Matic or South San Gabriel or his solo work he's developed a signature style/sound/voice that's unmistakably his. On March 7th Misra Records will release Fort Recovery the first Centro-Matic album in three years. Currently you can mailorder the record from Misra right now and I highly recommend you getting your hands on it sooner rather than later because it is beautiful and loud and velvety and rough and so accomplished. I've been a Centro fan for awhile, but I really think this might be the band's most coherent, accessible, melodic, confident record yet. But even with a slightly (and really only slightly) more "pop" approach to the songs the album still revolves around Will Johnson's broken, inimitable but somehow pretty vocal style and his mush mouthed enigamtic metaphors.

While there are a number of songs on Fort Recovery that stay close to Centro's formula for bombastic fuzzed up rockers replete with crashing crescendoes the heart of this record is with the slower ballads. It's to the band's credit that they're able to transition from a rocker like "Patience For The Ride" into back to back slow songs ("I See Through You", "In Such Crooked Times") without the listener losing patience or getting an itchy "next" finger. It all feels part of a whole, each piece necessary to the rest.

There are 2 tracks availbale from the Misra site:

Triggers And Trash Heaps

Calling Thermatic

I'll add one more at the risk of over exposing the album.

In Such Crooked Times

Great record that deserves to be heard in the same way that I felt Okkervil's Black Sheep Boy needed to be heard last year. Have a great weekend.