Venice is Sinking
Sand & Lines
[One Percent Press 2010]
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The hallmark of any good band is consistency of quality. A single good song or perhaps even two or three can be written off as some fluke anomaly, a lucky strike in the dark. But a steady string of solid gems can only be attributed to talent and perseverance—and some measure of vision. For any band to lay claim to even the slightest hint of greatness, there must also be growth. Risks must be taken, uncharted waters explored. And it must be done—and here’s the rub—without comprising the core sound, without giving away or abandoning whatever bit of potent magic that made a band’s music so vital and necessary in the first place.
All of this puts Athens, Georgia’s Venice is Sinking precariously on the verge. Over the course of two full-lengths the band has earned a reputation as an elegant orchestral pop unit capable of delivering lush, dreamy songs fraught with emotional energy. Their music has often been quite beautiful—densely-layered stuff full of warmth and a kind of swooning grace. Still, I could not help the feeling that it has been at times too ponderous, too, well, manipulated and overwrought.
With Sand & Lines, however, those notions are out the window. In an attempt to reconceive their sound, the band entered the storied Georgia Theatre in downtown Athens, located in the veritable heart of the local music scene, to record the sessions for their third full-length. Over the course of four days and nights, the group painstakingly crafted the album using only a pair of mics and the theatre’s majestic acoustics. In a very real and affecting way, the venue became ingrained into the very soul of the record.
Tragically, in June 2009 the Georgia Theatre burned down. Feeling obligated to help out by any means possible, the band started a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter.com and promised that all proceeds from Sand & Lines would go to the cost of rebuilding. Fortunately, the extensive (and quite expensive) project appears to be well on its way with hopes that the restored building will reopen by next spring. Donations are being accepted at the theatre’s website www.georgiatheatre.com.
And if ever there were a record that should be associated with the reconstruction of such a vital landmark, it is Sand & Lines. A stripped down, bare-bones affair completed without any edits or overdubs, the album takes ViS’s expansive and atmospheric pop and weaves in some country twang and a new rootsy aesthetic that never feels forced or out of place. Longtime fans will bask in the glow of the group’s resplendent harmonies, Daniel Lawson’s languorous vocals, and Karolyn Troupes familiar, mournful viola. But there is something decidedly different at work here; there’s a haunting distance to the sounds, an ethereal, floating quietness that pervades the proceedings and lends the album a ghostly, dimly lit vibe that is entrancing. Songs like the swaying “Sidelights” and the airy “Falls City” with their moaning organs and reverb-drenched guitars showcase a band simultaneously embracing the roots of American rock and wrestling those sounds down to fit their own, more contemporary needs.
Nowhere is this dual agenda more prevalent than on the band’s choice of covers. On the one hand they slide comfortably—if predictably—into the lulling ache of Galaxy 500′s “Tugboat,” and on the other they take Dolly Parton’s concert staple “Jolene” and Waylon Jennings’ classic “The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don’t Want to Get Over You)” and blur them into something stark, vulnerable, and ominous. It’s a Nashville aesthetic filtered through an Athenian pop lens, a sort of dusky, countrified dreampop that feels somehow both fresh and worn, comfortable yet eerily foreign. Produced by local legend David Barbe (Drive-By Truckers, Son Volt, Harvey Milk) Sand & Lines is a much more spectral and subdued album than anything the band has done in the past and the organic minimalism suits them well, especially on the wrenching “Bardstown Road” which forms the emotional apex of the record.
You could write it off as a simple case of less equaling more, but I think it would be a shame to avoid mentioning the inherent risk involved in making this particular record. If nothing else, AZAR had established the band. Momentum was theirs. Expectations and anticipations were building. They could have delivered more of the same and no one would have held it against them. Far from it. Most likely it would have been a strong record, probably worthy of acclaim. In short, good stuff. And yet, expected stuff.
With Sand & Lines, the band challenged themselves to conjure up something great without the benefits of a proper studio, digital tools and assets, or the usual post-production tweaking and sweetening. What they delivered was a dark, brooding, slow burning album full of soul, grit and quiet determination.
More Info:
Web: www.veniceissinking.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/veniceissinking
Twitter: www.twitter.com/veniceissinking
