Search - Channels :: Waiting for the Next End of the World

Full-length lives up to promise of "Open" EP

Michael Dion | Portland, OR | 09/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I admit it -- I was way behind the curve on Jawbox, J. Robbins' first band. By the time I'd caught on, they'd already thrown in the towel (after 1997's "Jawbox").Then his next project, Burning Airlines, came and went after only TWO albums. Come on, how am I supposed to keep up with that?



Now, with his band Channels' first offering, the ep "Open," out for over two years, it's fair to say my Pavlovian anticipation for this album has caused a fair amount of salivary overdrive, and has been richly rewarded. That, at least, would explain the ear-to-ear grin as I sit listening.



The full-length album more than lives up to the promise of "Open." Robbins & Co. build on the band's strengths, and the breadth of offerings shows how thoroughly his experience as a producer of other bands has informed his own songwriting and arranging. There are echoes of the tack Burning Airlines was taking -- "New Logo" and "Little Empires" recall "Pacific 3-2-1" and "Carnival" -- short bursts of pure, stylized aggro-pop.



This is how great guitar pop can sound; I would unequivocally rank this release with the benchmarks of yesteryear: The Pixies' "Surfer Rosa," Weezer's green album, or Nirvana's "Nevermind." The play of extremes that was a highlight of Cobain's songwriting has been a hallmark of Robbins' efforts from the beginning, and "Waiting" is as much a product of its time (namely, the second term of Bush the Lesser) as any of those antecendents.



The music seethes with post 9-11 angst (as in the lead track "New Mandarins:" "It's tricky to relax/when bracing for impact/but that's how your patriots act/the panic room's in back"), but then soothes in equal parts. The band pummels when necessary (with drummer Darren Zentek providing flailing propulsion), then pauses for breath as Robbins delivers a succinct summation on the state of the world. His exhortations, delivered in his trademark velvety roar, always stop short of mere bombast; his musings are leavened with enough humanism that he avoids the trap of wry condescension.



"New Logo" is the set's most concentrated blast of verbal j'accuse, recalling Burning Airlines' "A Lexicon" in its intensity: "Well-armored with a taste for the absurd/New logo for the next end of the world/I wanna feel the art in heartless, get the urge/For ever brighter effigies to burn/& more vicious circuses to unwind."



I'd be willing to put Robbins' lyric gifts on a par with some of the best songwriters working today. Consider "The Licensee," which neatly encapsulates the nightmare of the 9-to-5 grind, replete with the mind-numbing commute. "Living in a dead letter but the money is the measure/and you're tethered to the treasure where the pressure is a pleasure/half a lifetime sleeping on the Camden line." It's tempting to call such word-play clever for its own sake, but to this commuting nine-to-fiver, it's bloody brilliant.



The good news gets even better with reprise of "Chivaree," arguably the best cut on "Open," in a different, edgier take, now updated to remove the dating reference to 2003; now it's "This ****ing century" that puts bombs in his dreams. The song sends Pixies-esque shivers up the spine, especially during the last chorus, with Robbins and bassist-vocalist Janet Morgan brokenly yelping their seamless harmonies over the raging rhythm.



But J. Robbins is so much more than just a guitarist-producer with an over-excited vocabulary. "Iodine," on Jawbox's "For Your Own Special Sweetheart" proved that, way back in 1995. On this album the gentler side is on display on the last track, "Mercury," which, though written by Peter Grey Mansinne, gives the band ample room to flex its prowess. They make the track blossom from a simple pop song into a sort of heavy metal lullaby. The male-female vocals, mixed dead-center, create an eerie timbre; far from being asexual, it's almost unbearably intimate. Their phrasing is so exact you'd swear it was some kind of expensive effect, but it's not. It's two humans singing together, and Channels is a band smart enough to know that sometimes that's all you need."

Not as good as Open, but it's growing on me :)

Andy | Long Island, NY USA | 03/12/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I've been a big fan of Channels and it's previous incarnations (Burning Airlines and Jawbox). This is still a *great* album, but I think it's a bit weaker than Open. That being said, their music usually takes a while to grow on me, so I might have to post an update in a month or two."