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The Noise : Instant Magazine : Yoursound.com: Stuff at Night : The Noise : Northeast Performer : Bangsheet : DLClive.com : International Pop Overthrow |
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| Praise for Hangman's Pop | |
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The Noise Live Review December 2000 The Gravy sets up in a flash, powers like a steam engine into the first song, and shows 'em how it's done. Todd Spahr leaves most of the guitar wizardry to Michael Jordan, sticking mainly to rhythm, pelvic gyrations, wild antics, and the lion's share of the lead vocals. For "Underwire" from last year's Hollywood EP Todd, Michael, and bassist Jim Haggerty loop vocals on the chorus and harmonize on the bridge. On this song and the slow crooner "OhY," this band proves the power of unanimous singing ability and the magic of what it means to have really well-written songs. At first I'm the only one standing in the Sahara wasteland Inhale Mary left in front of the stage, but three songs in I'm flanked as people wander over from the bar and come forward from the back to see what makes rock great. The sheer brawn and intensity of The Gravy puts them into the upper echelon of indie rock and guess what? They're back in the studio. Praise god, one more score against the acceptance of mediocrity! (Lexi) |
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This self-titled five song EP is a follow-up to the full length, Hangman's Pop. Normally bands do it the other way around-they produce a short EP and then put out the full length. In this case, they didn't want too much time to pass them by without producing some new material for the desperate pop fans of Boston. If you like interesting layered pop with unusual allegorical lyrics, then look no further. The first track, '40 Acres,' has offbeat lyrical snippets that could be interpreted in a variety of ways. Who knows what it means, but the driving bass with Beatlesque guitar chords accenting the upper range is infectious. 'Underwire,' the second track is definitely a keeper. It features electric and acoustic guitars over a syncopated beat, while Todd Spahr repeatedly pleads that he won't be your dog. One wonders if the reference to underwire is to women's bras, but it's definitely a big solid hook. 'Oh...y,' has Elvis Costello stamped all over it. The vocal harmonies are lush and full as any boys choir; and that Hammond B3! It's positively smashing. The newer line-up certainly has some solid talent. It was impressive to see the bass player, Jim Haggerty, using a twelve-string Hamer during the live versions of these songs. It gives many of the bass lines a fuller piano-like sound that's a bit more interesting and harder to duplicate. Other features to note are the interesting two and three part harmonies, interesting reverberating effects, tight varied percussion and Todd Spahr's signature vocal sound. This EP is a solid offering from one of Boston's bounciest pop groups. Yes, their feet rarely touch the stage during a live set. -Joanie Pfister |
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Live Review of International Pop Overthrow in Los Angeles. Well, I am pretty sure that I told everyone I knew about the mother of all bands closing the afternoon show at IPO Sunday in what for me was a religious experience! Those of you who weren't at THE GIG at approx. 4:50PM- 5:30 PMWell,.. YOU MISSED IT !! The GRAVY are perhaps the best ROCK BAND on the east coast ! I don't know about anyone else, but it was too subdued until THEY took the stage, except for those Minneapolis guys, "Arch Stanton"-kinda psychadelic, very interestingSo nice to see some young guys up there taking chances, unafraid ! And the Boston boys had that in Spades !! Todd Spahr is so brilliant! Great voice, great songs, amazing guitar work ! WOW! To me that is what is missing from pop and rock music in general these days.So, those two examples yesterday renewed my faith that there is always hope.and the semi-Cavedog reunion DID happen, to my great delight! Mark Rivers showed up (!!) and he, Todd, and Jim Haggerty (my Bass Brother, who kicked ass!!), tore through "Tater Country" and "Calm Him Down" from the classic "Joy Rides For Shut Ins"WOW ! Next year, a full reunion with Brian Stevens in attendenceI personally spoke to Mark and Todd and they are both very much into it ! WOW! I am breathless, and so happy ! That show made the festival for me.I need not go to any more showsbut I was there last night-really dug PLUM-bought their fine 4-song sampler.good show overall, although I think Frisbee was a good band, I didn't find them particluarly engaging or catchy..just OK I will be there tonight for my San Diego buddies, Elgin PArk-please come! They are wonderfulvery spirited, Elvis Costello-ish, great songs from frontman Mike (Freaks and Geeks) Andrews ! See ya at Spaceland tonite !! "Thomo" |
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Wasting no time,
they dispense with huge vocal hooks on "40 Acres",
a bar room boogaloo tune. What a pleasing voice Mr. Spahr has;
just the right balance of experience and hungry bravado. "Underwire",
the most memorable song on here, reels you in with it's "Never
wanna be your dog" chorus. Try not singing the line after
you've heard it. "Ohy" is an ELO meets BB King's "Thrill
is gone" girl trouble song A little sad yet a little romantic.
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Wow! What an impressive EP. This sophmore release by ex-Cavedogs Todd Spahr really packs a retro-pop punch. The Gravy dish out 5 rockin' pop songs with a 70's-80's Beatle-esque Brit-pop sound. They kind of remind me of the band in That Thing You Do. Wasting no time, they dispense with huge vocal hooks on "40 Acres", a bar room boogaloo tune. What a pleasing voice Mr. Spahr has; just the right balance of experience and hungry bravado. "Underwire", the most memorable song on here, reels you in with it's "Never wanna be your dog" chorus. Try not singing the line after you've heard it. "Ohy" is an ELO meets BB King's "Thrill is gone" girl trouble song A little sad yet a little romantic. While the overall
sound of the Gravy may not be new, it certainly doesn't take
away from the impact and accessibility these songs have. They
know how to craft catchy pop numbers. With a strong push to radio,
the Gravy should do quite well. (Dustin) |
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Yoursound.com 1/21/00 at The Linwood
The Gravy and
Francine
I don't know what your Friday night was like, but Friday night at the Linwood was dedicated to the song. The audience was treated to mounds of melody, hills of harmony, and gardens of guitars...and far more likable lyrics than these. The Linwood has been booking some great nights lately; this coupled with their incredibly attentive sound crew will keep the fans coming back. ...And when Q
Division asks, "How about some gravy with that" you
better answer, "Yes'm". This band is tasty. If you
like you In contrast to
Scoble's cool reserve, Todd Spahr was so fervent I was startled.
He stalked the carpeted-stage like the devil's Both of these
bands will move onto bigger and better things than the local
music scene. Do yourself a favor and check |
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By Jonathan Perry Two years can
be an eternity in a pop world built on constantly changing tastes,
shifting trends, and --especially these days-- corporate downsizing
and label takeovers. So it is that even though the Gravy released
one of the most inventive, guitar-crunchingly cool local albums
of 1997 with their Hangman's Pop (Q Division), the band
are viewing their new five-song EP as an opportunity to reintroduce
themselves to an audience that may not have had a chance to hear
them the first time around. |
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THE GRAVY Q-Division Infectious, intelligent
psychedelic pop is on the menu for the new release from The Gravy,
ostensibly titled The Hollywood EP. Singer / guitarist Todd Spahr
and guitarist/ theraminist Michael Jordan have assembled a new
lineup for these five tracks, but the new signature Gravy sound
has carried over form their 1997 release Hangman's Pop. Comparisons
to The Beatles are probably inevitable due to the lush / soaring
vocals and British invasion inspired harmonic structures. That's
part of the package, but the real allure of The Gravy is that
they hail from the same stylistic address as Early Aerosmith
and Alex Chilton: simple yet heavy riffs with a bit of swagger.
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Northeast Performer - November the Gravy- Self titled Todd Spahr and the Gravy
succeed again within an EP chock-full of retro pop rockers that
stand up and salute all things Beatle. Okay, maybe they've had
enough Beatle comparisons for one lifetime. But the simple fact
of the matter is, when Paul McCartney is all done blubbering
about the loss of Linda, he should look the Gravy up and sit
down to write a few jingles-just to see what happens. Guaranteed
he'll wince at the thought of ever singing duets with Jacko or
Elvis Costello again. |
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The
Gravy
-Vic Savage |
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Musician Magazine January 1998 Bear with me as I make a grand prediction: No other album released in 1997 will sound remotely like this. The fourteen tracks that make up Hangman's Pop, the debut album by the Gravy, manage the difficult feat of being both infectious and completely crazed. Over and over, these songs introduce inventive melodies and establish enticing moods, only to bust them open with bursts of noise or graft on a seemingly unrelated section in the most jarring manner possible. Chord progressions fall apart, mixes are oddly askew, the whole thing sounds like it could collapse at any minute. In fact, it just keeps getting more brilliant... - Mac Randall |
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"Rock 'n' Roll, baby. That's pretty much what this trio's all about. Except for the fact that it's not quite rock, and you can't really roll with it. No songs on this 13 song CD are really radio quality, but good nonetheless. The best tracks on here are "6/8 Time", and "Closing Credits". So, if you ever wondered what would happen if you take Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin and through them in the middle of a mosh pit full of angry members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, this is the CD for you." -peter |
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Beneath the juxtaposed layers of psychedelic pop and retro regalia, Hangman's Pop could be seen as Syd Barrett rewriting Piper at the Gates of Dawn after having been intravenously fed Sgt. Peppers and Pet Sounds for about three weeks straight. There's some real substance here that goes well beyond the two or three pop gems (the least you'd expect from Q Division) that stick out after the very first listen. It does take a while for the records schizophrenic personality to emerge though; as it does, you realize there's this sort of mad genius sitting on top of a very, very distant place putting these moments together. That person is Todd Spahr, former guitarist of The Cavedogs, famed adulator of classic rock and the only man in Boston who can convincingly wield a double-neck Gibson. "King's Castle"is the instant single, complete with 2/4 acoustic strum, the best bass sound I've heard on a recent release, and that confident brit boy vocal delivery that Spahr hits so well. The song sticks, and the flavor lasts, all the way to the end as the thing seems to be sucked into this very large black reverb hole. The punchy instrumental "A Scary Tree with Eyes Eating Someone" delivers what it promises, with the over-the-top drums that you'll hate yourself for liking. "6/8 Time" illustrates some of the most powerful writing on this record, and the most convincing vocal performance on Hangman's Pop. Unfortunately, the easiest way to describe the sonic masterpiece that is "Embrace Your Plague" is by imagining Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson at the peak of their careers co-composing a funeral dirge. While Hangman's Pop is a great testament to The Gravy's wild, over the top sound, as well as Spahr's exceptional songwriting, it does take a while for the big picture to sink in, and with folks having such a short attention span these days, one can only hope for the best. - Nico |
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It sure isn't easy to pull off a mechanical hand-clap track. You need to temper that hand-clap track with a lot of manic apathy and glittering sarcasm. Judging by "Hangman's Pop" by The Gravy, you also need to temper it with about 43 layers of pureed guitars and unidentifiable sounds whose effect can't really be measured except in the conclusion that it sure took a lot of time to mix down this album. Multitude of layers aside, it's obvious The Gravy didn't skimp on the manic apathy or the glittering sarcasm either. "Hangman,s Pop" is smart, with a sense of fatigue. This tired intelligence produces some very interesting arrangements, and some sparkling lyrics, but also produces such finger-in-my-navel song titles as "Concerning Mr. G's Missing Digit" and "A Scary Tree with Eyes Eating Someone." Perplexing, even a little irritating, but certainly intriguing. Don't get me wrong. The Gravy isn't disposably experimental. This is toe-tapping rock n, roll, sort of Sgt. Pepper meets Garbage meets The Pixies in an old auditorium with a cavernous sense of depth and distance. I get the sneaking suspicion that if someone had pushed away from the mixing board a little earlier, these tunes might have walked away claiming to be pop gems. "Pretty Krishna" in particular strikes me as a memorable, hooky little number. "Memory" may make to my next car trip tape. But this is pop music for the apocalypse. Nothing is simple, nothing is delivered unchanged or purchased as-is. Complications multiply, divide, regroup and multiply the effect of each song, until you're not sure whether you're listening to the words, the ambience, or just trying to find the source of the counter-melody in your speakers. The band exhibits ruthless energy, forced into fragments by the prismatic structure of the arrangements, but still dazzling. |
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Ex-Cavedog guitarist Todd Spahr's first release since the break up of that sadly missed Boston three-piece is a collection that might fall between two stools; too out-there to click with the trad guitar-pop crowd, and too rocking and melodic for the experimental folks. It would be a real shame if this record doesn't find an audience, though, because it has an unusual depth. You never know, though, radio might wake up to "King's Castle" one of the few straight ahead pop songs found here, a real gem that most recalls his former band and a winner in the strum and pound stakes. Elsewhere, Spahr and producers Glenn Brown and Jon Lupfer do not skimp; why overdub one fuzzed up bass guitar when you could add six or seven, and another semi-discordant harmony vocal is always waiting for the next chorus to make it's appearance. Not that that is a criticism, far from it: we don't need any more anemic power-pop records, thank you very much, and ambition like this should be encouraged. The between-song sound effects and song snippets help create an atmosphere of otherness, particularly effective when coming out of a primal slasher like "The Song", which posits that "...for a song to be meaningful/the singer must be dead...". According to reports, the backing tracks for this album were all recorded in one day, and then Spahr spent more than a year overdubbing and deconstructing, chiseling and chipping away until he was happy. Time well spent. - Grahame Davies |
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"There's a broad grim streak running through the Gravy's power-trio candy on Hangman's Pop. But it's the buoyant kind of sour you loved in 'White Album' - era John Lennon and early XTC, with spunky personal touches like the romping acoustic guitars and fuzz bass in 'Memory' and the Grand Funk Raspberries-style clout of 'Sissy Blood' " David Fricke - Rolling Stone |