The opening track of “This Vital Chapter” is a thirty-eight second song, “Paragraph 1: Hibernation”. With talk of unicorns and tyrannosaurus (and Tom Waits old-timey saloon and Beach Boys crescendo cliché) that thing was on a slippery slope headed for the Okkervil River. Shivering and disoriented, the band was rescued from the “Black Forest (Lorelei)”. Panda Band is songwriter/singer/guitarist Damian Crosbie, bassist David Namour, guitarist Chris Callan, drummer Gabriel Nicotra, and keyboardist Stephen Callan (yeah that’s Morgan Spurlock. Shh.) But they could be called the Five Satins when they kill it like a collegiate a cappella in “High In Your Saddle” and “Ghosts Have The Best Time”.
I love it when people write songs about their friends. (And name names.) “Ghosts Have The Best Time” could be a song about The Grates’ Patience Hodgson (“I could see that you had a spark. Didn’t come on strong, didn’t try too hard. You used the stage like a “Trampoline”. Ghosts have the best time, Patience!”) Answering The Grates’ Gravity Won’t Get You High song “Seek Me”(“I had the time of my life with you!”) Crosbie replies, “I had the best time too”. As a fellow indie rock Australian band – though from different sides of the country (Panda Band is from a "Sleepy Little Deathtoll Town" (Perth) - the isolated San Diego of West Australia), I guess the bands still spent a lot of…venue time together. The wispy intro of “Ghosts Have The Best Time” reminds me of “Somebody That I Used To Know” (Elliott Smith).
Crosbie’s vocals are Luke Haines-ish (albeit a happy Luke Haines), and Now I’m A Cowboy-era The Auteurs (“Spanish Bride” and Crosbie’s stirring love song about his surf guitar “The Jaguar”). At times This Vital Chapter conjures up memories of yesteryear 120 Minutes with its early to mid 90’s Spacehog glam meets Afghan Whigs histrionics in “Eyelashes” and “Musical Chairs”. Like in “Musical Chairs” when Crosbie sings, “Sure, I have missed you, although I said I’d not. I just don’t need you to be my record run.” That stuff makes Matt Pinfield cry.
There are some off-putting elements to This Vital Chapter: maybe let’s not experiment with trumpets (“Sleepy Little Deathtoll Town”, “Musical Chairs”), the creepy Katy “Little Girl Voice” Steele duets (“We’ve Got The Face Of The Earth”, “A Call To Your Arms”) and Crosbie’s Dylan karaoke ode to his own (his own!) “Lovely Shoulders”. More The Monkees than the Beatles; the band has a goofball sense of humor to go along with their lush instrumentals (“Spanish Bride”, “Signing Off (We’re Almost Not Even Here) Part 1”) – “This Vital Chapter” is the Wedding to Arcade Fire’s Funeral. |