The Spinning Room
By Rob Browning

Varnaline
Songs in A Northern Key
E Squared/Artemis Records
I saw Varnaline play their first show here in town, either at Brownies or the Knitting Factory. Regardless of the venue, as soon as I heard Hammer Comes Down I was hooked. I saw their next seven or eight shows and played the hell out of their first record. Now it’s record number four and singer Anders Parker still has it. He’s also got the patronage of one Mr. Steve Earle, who released the record on his E-Squared imprint. You could have worse of an angel looking over your shoulder. The record is a little less rocking than previous ones and returns to the Anders=Varnaline aesthetic. Most songs feature his voice and skeletal backing, with the odd vibraphone or harmonium guest appearance from brother John and Kendall Meade of Mascot. The songs are as bleak and desolate as the Northern Winter environs they were recorded in, but are damn compelling nonetheless. If you liked the Pernice Brothers and/or Son Volt, you’ll definitely want to pick this one up.

The White Octave
Menergy
Initial Records
I’m sure White Octave frontman Steven Pedersen is sick of hearing about Cursive and his tenure with the Omaha rock juggernaut, but it’s hard to ignore the influence in his music. It’s also hard to avoid the NAMBLA-esque cover art. Holy homo-erotic Batman. That’s not to say that this isn’t an absolutely amazing record, or that there isn’t a strong individual sound to the White Octave. If you like Shellac’s latest record and more song oriented math rock, you should run to the nearest record purveyor and pick up this little darling. Don’t judge this book by its cover, run out and feel the power of Menergy.

Horace Pinker
Copper Regret
Coldfront Records
There are a lot of bands that sound like Horace Pinker. There’s Face To Face and a host of others that worship at the altar of Pegboy roaming the punk rock circuit. This isn’t a new phenomenon, as Jawbreaker dipped into that well over a decade ago. How fitting that Jawbreaker bass maestro Chris Bauermeister is now playing with the HP boys. Kind of ties up the whole package kind of nicely. This five song EP is the record that you want in your car this summer. Great catchy songs that’ll have you in a Driver’s Education course working off those points by Summer’s end.

Robert Earl Keen
Gravitational Forces
Lost Highway Records
Bob Keen is one of the great Texas songwriters that came up in the picking parties of the late 70s and early 80s. He’s had a couple novelty type hits like The Road Goes On Forever (And The Party Never Ends) that have endeared him to the frat boy/Jimmy Buffett crowd, but don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking he’s not a great singer and songwriter. Gurf Morlix co-produced the record with Robert and his gift with a song and facility on anything with strings gives this record the oomph that has been missing from his last couple records. There’s still the wackiness of Snowin’ On Raton but Gravitational Forces keep him in the orbit of song storytellers like Guy Clark and Steve Earle. That’s a good universe to be in and Robert Earl Keen is certainly a shining star in it.

San Geronimo
EP
Coldfront Records
Coldfront kingpin Brett Matthews has been talking up this EP for this last six months or so. With ex-Lifetime/Jets To Brazil guitarist Peter Martin and ex-Drowningman drummer Todd Tomlinson on board you would figure that this kids could kick the ballistics, as social critic Flavor Flav might say. You’d be right, but I had hoped for a little bit more. Singer Denny Martin is neither Ari Katz nor Blake Schwarzenbach in the lyric department, but he’s a pretty good singer. I hear that he’s now an ex-singer for San Geronimo, so we’ll see what direction the band goes in, as I believe he wrote a lot of the stuff. Good if you like the emo/hardcore end of things, but hardly groundbreaking.