Review#211: Tilly and the Wall
The gift of a fat-lipped grin
I really wanted to make this review about Steel Reserve, but that ain’t gonna happen. Instead it’s about Tilly and the Wall and their two full-length albums. Last year about this time, my friend Gil made an indie rock mix CD. I was seriously looking for new stuff to listen to. He gave me some great tracks, too, like Of Montreal- The Party’s Crashing Us Now, Envelopes-Isobelle and Leonard, Acid House Kings-7 Days, and lots of other great tracks. One, however, stuck out like a sore thumb, a thumb slammed in a door, the way my head and heart felt when I let this song sink in. It was Tilly and the Wall-Rainbows in the Dark, the first track off their second album, Bottoms of Barrels. Here’s the video for it.
The first thing I felt was the pounding percussion, but more on that later. The most influential part of that song were the lines “My sister went kissing a maple skinned boy, finally threw up her hands, said ‘I’m done being coy!’” This is what inspired me, only a scant five years after coming out, to finally go out and start kissing boys (kissed two, neither of which I should have) and say “What the hell?” when my boyfriend Jeremy asked me out (I totally lucked out there).
Sometime over the past year I looked for more tracks and found two from their first album, Wild Like Children. Nights of the Living Dead is a youth freedom anthem that’s comparable to (I can’t believe I’m going to say this) Sonic Youth’s Teenage Riot. The end has the background accompaniment of GLASS BREAKING! It is so satisfying to hear! The other track, The Ice Storm, Big Gust, and You, seems to have an anti-establishment theme, characterizing weather as oppressive forces which, of course, “won’t bring me and all my friends down”. My thing about this song is that whenever it is played, it must be played as loud as possible. Like, don’t wake up your neighbors or piss off your roommates or anything, but it needs to be listened to as loud as it can be played!
I don’t go looking for a lot of music. I have always just picked up whatever my friends listened to that I like. There were a couple of gems that I found on my own…L7, Eric’s Trip (R.I.P.), The Microphones (who my friends would have found out about later anyway). But for the most part, I just roll along and collect things like a sticky ball of goo. When I recently visited California, my best friend KC had the Bottoms of Barrels album and actually thanked me for referring him to it. This meant a lot, seeing as how KC has been the dominant influence in shaping my musical tastes. Well, him and my dad. I was surprised because I had not actually heard the whole album yet. So upon my return to my lovely Seattle I purchased both of their albums.
The first album is better. The second album is still better than anything I’ve heard in a while, but not as good. This saddens me because I know exactly what is going to happen. Now that I have been turned onto them with this renewed hope in indie rock music their next album is going to blow monkey balls. That’s just what happens. Enough of my cynicism, though…
The reason I like “Wild Like Children” more is that it has a more consistent sound that drives it through the album. “Bottoms of Barrels” has a more varied sound, both rocking songs and ballad-y songs. Their ballads tend to get a little boring, especially after I get pumped up by the first few tracks. That’s not to say they’re not pretty. “BoB” has one slower song I like that seems a little over produced for the band, with some 80’s sounding electronics in the back. I half-expect Limahl to start singing “Neverending Story.”
I don’t particularly like writing reviews of music because it’s a lot like art…you just have to listen to it and decide whether it pleases you or not. I can’t really do it for you, so I’ll just wrap it up by getting back to the percussion I mentioned earlier…Did you watch the video? Was it not brilliant? What was it? TAP SHOES! Thats right! A huge portion of the percussion on both albums is done with TAP SHOES! It’s so beautiful, the driving, banging sound just makes me want to stomp and destroy and fly!…ok, I’m getting carried away.
Tilly and the Wall’s songs are by no means complex. The chord progressions are very basic and the percussion, when in drum or electronic form, is simplistic at best. The beauty lies mostly in the arrangement, the use of different instruments and footwear as well as the vocal melodies and harmonies that carry profound yet simple lyrics throughout the albums.
There is only one thing that I am certain of in this world. If and when Tilly and the Wall come to Seattle I will be there. And I will dance. And if it’s an all ages show, I’ll be mad. But still go.