REVIEW: Wool, Box Set (London)
- David Landgren
So what is one to make of the story of Wool? They look like a young enough bunch of rockers from the West Coast to me. The liner notes of Box Set, however, indicate that most of the songs were first recorded between 1960 and 1968. This means they were either a) child prodigies, cooking up these songs at the age of two, or b) fell through space-time fabric's ripped up knee, or c) part of the still ultra-secret CIA program known as "Van Winkle" or d) none of the above, just playing a joke on the listener, about a history which never was. The correct answer is D.
The group appears to have been influenced by a diverse selection of bands which runs the gamut from the Ramones via the E-Street Band to U2. In 1992 they recorded Budspawn, their debut EP. This means Box Set is their debut album, to be filed under garage punk. Obligingly, they thank a number of bands on the liner notes, which gives another indication of their influences: L7, Faith No More, Tool, House of Pain, Rage Against The Machine and so on.
The core of the group, brothers Franz and Peter Stahl (earlier seen in the band Scream, a fistful of records released on the Dischord label) spent their formative years kicking around Washington DC and Seattle. In fact, David Grohl used to play drums, until he upped and left to join Nirvana. These days, Chris Bratton (seen with Seattle's Drive Like Jehu) occupies that spot, and the band is completed by Al Bloch on bass, who has played in various bands, including a stint with Concrete Blonde.
The first two tracks "Eden", and "Kill the Crow" are standard garage type tracks, guitars and drums and vocals. In a similar vein, "Superman is dead" laments the passing of the DC comics hero, in 2'03" of high-speed guitar.
In a change of pace, worth checking out is "B-350", a slow number with Al's bass up front in the mix driving a melody that coils around the spine, jangling guitars courtesy of Franz and Peter singing about the loneliness of the long-distance ('52 hours coast to coast') driver.
Also of note is a cover of "God Rest His Soul", a tribute to slain civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., originally penned by Gregg Allman. The album meanders along for a while, until they screw down the safety valve and turn the heat up, and let rip with a squalling punk piece (gotta) "Blackeye". They ease up for a while on "Take a Look", the closing piece, but during the song's twelve minutes, they have time to visit different places, like a Manzenera guitar solo, a Thurston Moore wall of noise, and so on, before finally bringing it all to a shuddering, bonecrunching halt.
Wool has the songwriting ability. I haven't seen them, but I suspect they're pretty damned good, live. The third part of the equation is the studio sound. And it is here that I think that they have not yet reached closure. Certainly, Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf have done well, but the arc is missing. Take a look at My Bloody Valentine: their first album had some very interesting stuff, but it was rather uneven and quirky. By the time they got around to their second album, they had the production nailed down and the results took them all the way to the top. I give this one a six out of ten.
