CRUISE CONTROL
Another great band to come across my transom since we put up the
FoundryMusic MySpace page is a California trio who go by the name OVALL. According to the bio on the official
OVALL myspace page,
the band was formed after the breakup of their previous outfit, PERFECT
CIRCLE (not to be confused with A PREFECT CIRCLE, the band fronted by
Maynard Keenan of TOOL) in 1998. Apparently, drummer Kevin Ellis,
guitairst Bill Connally, and bassist Larry Smith had auditioned
numerous vocalists before realizing their band was destined to be an
instrumental outfit.
The music brings to mind some of those
Shrapnel Records
discs from the early 1990s; a lot of shredding and guitar harmonies
over a solid backbone of double kick drum, and concrete like bass
lines. I wish Kevin, Bill, and Larry could find a singer to complete
the group, because they're MORE than competent musicians (hell, as I'm
thumbing through their myspace photos, I can see that Larry is noodling
away on a six sting bass -- and for some of the bass lines on these
songs, like "I don't remember", that's quite a feat).
I think my favorite song so far is "1020", just because that central
riff just makes my head want to knock into something heavy (well, it's
the riff or the vodka). It's so simple, but the guitar phrasing that's
on top of
it is stellar. Sometimes the best songs are the simpler ones. Actually,
that usually more often the case than not, and I am a cliche-slinging
douchebag for using that 'simple songs' line.
While I think mainstream success will be elusive to OVALL until they
find a full-time singer, I'm not sure that's where their heads are at.
They might be perfectly content right where they are. I wouldn't mind
seeing them live though. Too bad I'm in New Jersey and they're in
California.
