Search - Film School :: Alwaysnever

Beautiful music

Nathan B. Hyatt | San Francisco | 05/09/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"These local boys make me proud I'm from the Bay Area, much unlike the often-hailed Stratford 4 who should move to England.Film School, however, carry none of the pretention that plagues SO many bands from SF; they are content to make great music that takes you to a variety of places, all of which are pretty, even the painful ones.Songs that seem simple at first eventually unravel to wrap around your mind and refuse to leave your head. The only problem with this release is that it's only 4 songs! But I'll take whatever I can get from these guys.The vocals are well-done, which is rare in music these days, especially for anything even remotely connected to pop-rock.The first track is built upon layers of beautiful noise and distortion, and then a melancholy bass-line comes in to give it context. The rest of the album relies more on understated guitar work, interplay between simply-picked passages, and an overall mellow vibe, which suits them. This band isn't trying to change the world OR become famous rock stars. They just make good music.Support small music labels (Amazing Grease in this case) and buy this album from Amazon to make sure they keep carrying good music like this forever. Also check out another amazing band from SF called Tarentel."