Wednesday, December 14, 2016

LP Review: "This Guitars" by Grandkids

This Guitars
The late, great Mitch Hedberg had this great bit about 2 in 1 conditioner. With his eyes firmly shut behind sunglasses, he explained that 2 in 1 is a BS term because two things can't fit in the same space.

In fact, he lamented, that's why two was invented.

It's easy to see why that's funny, but perhaps Hedberg was a bit off the mark with this, pretty damned funny bit. Think about yourself, in the office, at home, at work...

There's probably two of you. That's how most of us are anyway. We have the public self and the private self.

What would you world be like if your private self and your public self were at odds with each other? Perhaps without realizing it, you're cursing like a sailor while talking to a client at work and at home you're being overly formal and small talky to your kids....

Grandkids
What caught my eye about Grandkids is that they originally hail from Urbana, IL.

There's some impersonal history there for me, but the nice thing about Urbana is that I'm always reminded of The Suede Chain from my halcyon days in St. Louis.

Unfortunately, they were from Champaign, but hey whatever right?

Interestingly enough, both Grandkids and The Suede Chain use cellos and violins, but the former are a bit different.

Getting back to the two selves, it's almost as if sometimes they cannot keep their younger, classically trained selves in check when they're trying to rock out.

This album is clearly of two minds, but of two minds that mesh so wonderfully. The private selves co-mingle with the public selves creating rock record that's beautifully interwoven with classical and even some jazz.

There are times when this record will lull you into a smoky jazz club and then bust out a rocking guitar lick that'll return you straight to Delmar Hall. Of course that's only if they've decided not to play a little Mozart on the cello.

Release: 12/16/16
Genre: Psych-Pop (I guess?)
Label: Heirship Records
Formats: CD/LP/Digital
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