American Werewolf Academy - Everything is Alright So Far

  by Andrew Carver

published: 27 / 11 / 2011

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Review

American Werewolf Academy have been soldiering in the field of powerpop for about eight years. Considering the band’s songwriting skills and proven record of rock nuggets, it’s remarkable they aren’t on more fan’s radar screens, but hopefully this oversight will be rectified with the release of the 13-track ‘Everything Is Alright So Far’, which collects both new songs and tunes from a grab bag of previous releases. The Dallas trio of singer-guitarist Aaron Thedford, drummer Tony Harper and bassist Jake Barnhart have a clear affection for the sounds of the 1960s and 1970s. Combined with Thedford voice, which at times is a ringer for Robert Pollard’s, and you get another band for Guided By Voices fans to obsess over. Not that the band is a clone of the beloved Dayton outfit: Unlike GBV, AWA’s lyrics make sense a tune like ‘Rock Show Tonight’ (originally on 2004 EP ‘Devil, Spit It Out’) offers a straight-up testimony to rocking and rolling, rather than Pollard’s more impressionistic wordplay. ‘Goodnight, My Pumpkin Pie’, also a refugee from ‘Devil’ takes a ragged Americana turn with banjo plunking and mournful harmonica. The slow burning ‘Wild Birds’ (off 2009’s ‘Triceratops’, as is ‘Man With No Off Switch’ and Summer Ship’) is a more melancholy number, with some minor key cello, but doesn’t stint on the Harper’s straightahead rhythm or Thedford’s fuzzed out guitar. ‘Beneath Your Scaptula Lie Dragon Wings’ boasts a more fanciful title than most of the Academy’s songs, and rips along in under two minutes in a flurry of guitar buzz and drum rolls. Some falsetto choruses tart up the aforementioned ‘Man With No Off Switch’, while the scuffed-up guitar on ‘Jack Wild’ would suit a Spoon album. The band is more than happy to just rock out, as on ‘My Cloven Hoof’. Clocking in at a shade over 36 minutes, ‘Everything Is Alright So Far’ is a super introduction to one of the U.S.A.’s best unsung bands.

Track Listing:-

1 The Hop
2 Summer Ship
3 The Kid Stays In The Picture
4 Rock Show Tonight
5 Goodnight, My Pumpkin Pie
6 Wild Birds
7 Beneath Your Scaptula Lie Dragon Wings
8 Man With No Off Switch
9 Jack Wild
10 My Cloven Hoof
11 Goodnight For Anything
12 What's Shakin', Dr. Wizard?
13 Welcome To The Academy

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/AmericanWerew
http://www.americanwerewolfacademy.com
https://americanwerewolfacademy1.bandc
http://www.last.fm/music/American+Were
https://twitter.com/amerwereacad

Label Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/damnablylondo
https://twitter.com/damnably
http://www.damnably.com/
https://instagram.com/damnably/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHMRZ