S will be performing in Seattle for the first time in a long time this Saturday, opening for Panda and Angel, and this is cause for no small amount of excitement. The outfit makes itself scarce, a rare quality amongst our local favorites, making its shows true events, because, well, who knows when we’ll see them up on stage again?
S is primarily Jenn Ghetto, former Carissa’s Wierd singer, with help from Josh Wackerly (also of Panda and Angel) and others. Ghetto and Wackerly are currently working on material for the group’s third album, due out in 2007. The development between the first and second albums was quite marked and it will be interesting to see what the third album will bring.
S’s first album, Sadstyle, was a remarkable release. I remember taking it home after seeing Ghetto perform the songs solo at the CD release, and, upon first listen, being very nearly angry. The quality of recording is miserable. The guitars sound like they were plugged directly into a cheap four track machine, and vocals sound like they were captured with your garden variety Radio Shack mic while sitting in a cramped closet. The songs were full of sloppy edits, tempo inconsistencies and gallons of low-grade reverb. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with any of this, but after hearing the live performance I was hoping for something more. Surely someone in a successful band like Carrisa’s Wierd would have the means to secure a slightly better kit with which to record. Then I listened again. And again. And so on for the next months, as the songs made their way under my skin and lodged themselves solidly at the front of my brain.
The songs seem to document Ghetto’s inner-world as she goes through the stuff of everyday life – the things that go right and wrong (well, mostly wrong) when you are only somewhat willing entangled in the world of other people. It’s not new territory by any means, and has made for some of the worst songs and poems of all time, but what separates Sadstyle’s songs from the maudlin emoting of emo-boys and girls is that they are not calculated or intending to impress or exact revenge. Rather it’s as if we were allowed to stumble upon the letter’s of a promising, if not great writer – informal and never intended for publication, but full of the insight and talent underlying the more public works. The songs appear to capture the precise moments of creation – the questions asked and statements made are actually being asked and made, rather than performed. And that’s what so many people got wrong about “lo-fi” in the 90s – it wasn’t about poor recording quality, rather it was about reducing the gap between the artist and recording medium.
And one should not overlook Ghetto’s guitar playing, which is as unique and inspired. She generally avoids the strummed chord stylings overused by generations of singer-song writers in favor of more complex plucked lines that provide the melody while establishing the rhythm.
The second album, Puking and Crying, upon first listen, was a delight. The sounds are clear and full while the material covers the familiar brooding territory. Subsequent listens did not reveal anything further, however. While the album is still enjoyable, the clicks du jour, computer generated tempos and crisp musical bits somehow rob the songs of their authenticity. The cleanliness of the recording comes at the expense of the spontaneity, and one can almost hear a self-consciousness absent in the earlier work. I can only hope that for the third album she either wrangles all of the production critters back into their proper cages or abandons them all together and lets her guitar, which she plays so well, and voice stand on their own.
Having said this, the fleshed out band is exciting to see. Hearing some of the older songs performed by a full band gave them entirely new life and the tension Ghetto brings to her performances is far more captivating than the white-belted acrobatics put on by your typical of-the-moment outfit. Highly recommended!
