The 3-Way was released on April 20th
It was recorded and mixed entirely at Studio FortyFive in Hartford, CT.
It was produced, engineered and mixed by Michael Deming.
Kurt Heasley, Aaron Sperske, Dave Shuman, Torben Pastore and Michael Deming have outdone themselves!
Of course it's brilliant - it's the Lilys!
Wonderfully imaginative lyrics.
Wildly unexpected musical twists and turns.
Click here to order The 3-Way from amazon.com.
(for a limited time => click on song title for a 30 sec wav file):
CMJ New Music Monthly Best New Music Lilys The 3 Way Let's ad this
mathematically: The 3 Way clocks in at
just over 36 minutes. Eleven of those minutes contain
five ecstatic blasts of '60s British Invasion guitar
riffs, Nuggets-style organ lines, and soaring layered
harmonies, in the tradition of the Lily's superb 1996
disc "Better Can't Make Your Life Better".
"Dimes Make Dollars" opens the album with a
garage band riff, shared among fuzzy guitars and organ,
that will tempt you to frug or pony or at least do the
hand-jive. "A Tab For The Holiday" ends the
album with a very Kinks-like jaunty jingle, complete with
what sounds like a banjo and toy piano. The three other
two-minute treasures follow suit. Three pace-altering
sweet tunes divide another 11 minutes.Brilliant enough.
That leaves 14 minutes and they're the kickers:
"Socs Hip" and "Leo Ryan (Our Pharoah's
Slave)," seven minutes each, are mini-epics of
mind-bending construction, chock-full of melodies and
ideas that leader Kurt Heasley could have divvied among
ten or 12 other songs. Stop-time tango movements, sitars,
strings, a horn - anything could appear at any moment,
and does. Like those ubiquitous Elephant Six folks, or
like recent His Name Is Alive, the Lilys find
grin-producing riffs and fragments from the past and
recombine and rearrange them into thrilling new
equations. |
CMJ New Music From the pages of the CMJ New Music Report, Issue: 614 - Apr 19, 1999 Lilys The 3 Way SIRE A cynic would say that almost all new music is derivative -- sometimes blatantly so -- of the past. But even with that in mind, the question remains as to why that's a bad thing. The Lilys' Kurt Heasley doesn't have a single defense against the charge that he's cribbing from the classics. The 3 Way is an amalgamation of the most famous characteristics of the '60s British Invasion -- simple Kinks guitar lines, Beach Boys harmonies, Zombies organ riffs, and at least one coda that calls for a royalty check to Lennon and McCartney. This inspired copping is far from exasperating, however. Chalk it up to the quality of the era's innovators, or perhaps to Heasley's ardent enthusiasm for them, but The 3 Way is anything but hollow mimicry. In fact, it is an instant classic that attests to Heasley's rare songwriting talent as much as it does to the longevity of the style. The 3 Way is one of the finest mop-topped '60s rock albums in recent memory. It deserves a coveted spot in every cynic's record collection. Cheryl Botchick |
Spin Lilys Stoned silly on the fumes of melted-down Kinks and Zombies records, the all-American Lilys have been fusing increasingly ornate orchestration to increasingly peculiar variations on the British Invasion. Leader Kurt Heasley can play it straight, most notably on the waltz-time slow burner "The Spirits Merchant," but he mostly prefers to throw in a screwball chord change every second or two, then dress it up in dry acid-rock guitars, harpsichords, strings, handclaps, and ace three-part harmonies.The result sound like Oldies radio from a distance and abstract art-song up close. |
Rolling Stone #811 Lilys There have been all sorts of Kinks
obsessives over the years; rockers from Alex Chilton to
Pulp have admired the Konfused Ones for their saucy
Englishness and scores of sturdy tunes. But on The
3 Way, Lilys leader Kurt Heasley moves from
simple hero worship into some sort of aural stalking.
Check out the fake accents, harmonizing and guitar-organ
purr of "Dimes Make Dollars"; Ray Davies hasn't
been jacked like this since the Jam covered "David
Watts." "Socs Hip" and "The
Generator" have a sprightly, crafted bounce, but if
you've never heard the glories of Something Else and
Village Green Preservation Society, well, your choice is
clear. |
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