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| While the music of Manishevitz (composed by guitarist Adam Busch) is, without a doubt, eccentric enough to stand on its own, there are just too many obvious parallels elsewhere. Naturally, the first thing that came to mind when I saw the cover artwork of Manishevitz�s City Life was Toronto�s Nash the Slash. Wouldn�t this blatant impostering qualify for trademark infringement or something? Just wondering� As well, although hardly contrived, there is another, more famous, Adam Busch in the entertainment industry. As if that weren�t confusing enough, Adam�s vocals immediately struck me in their similarity to The Car�s Ric Ocasek on the opening track, �Beretta�, or Dave Fenton of The Vapors (�Turning Japanese�), the latter mostly notably on �Hate Ilene�. Nonetheless, City Life is actually worth taking a listen to. The fashionably discordant horn section of �Mary Ann� unaccountably complements the catchy �60s pop rhythm and melodious flute, kind of like the E-Street Band on acid. �Undercover� and the ensuing �Back in the Day� delve into the ambient electro-space-pop realm with a softer, Brit-inflected vocal approach, not unlike Byron�s The Alien, The Rabbit, & The Monkey or Pink Floyd�s earlier work. Both these tracks warrant repeated listening. Unfortunately, Mr. Busch then reverts to his yodel-ish glam-rocker persona in �Private Lines�. Although �Rainy Day Revolution� is barely over two minutes long, it�s a multi-layered symphony, resurrecting a bit of the long-lost art of �phasing� or at least a close simulation of it. The closer, �Colorado Shore�, while containing some great chiming guitar licks, was again sabotaged by the hiccupy vocals (enough already)! I�d listened to the CD several times before I realized I had been too distracted by the vocal tone to concentrate on the lyrics, which I ended up reading from the liner notes. The only lines that spoke to me summarize the overall sound � �It�s how you move that makes the music stutter and find its way around� (from �Rainy Day Revolution�). They must have been grooving up a storm! It�s the band�s third release since 1999�s Grammar Bell and All Fall Down and the subsequent Rollover, both of which were highly acclaimed in the Chicago underground music scene, of which I�m admittedly not familiar at all. Manishevitz is an amalgamation of Chicago players from numerous other bands, again, none of which I�m familiar with, and features guest performances from drummers Jason Adasiewicz and Gerald Dowd and keyboardists Wil Hendricks and Michael Krasser, who also produced and co-engineered the project with Andy Bosnak. City Life isn�t really my cup of tea, but give it a listen, anyway, and judge for yourself. |
| CITY LIFE - MANISHEVITZ |
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