CD Review: Torn Shorts’ Through the Mill Josh Grabert tears through competition It looks like the good folks with the WBRU Rock Hunt got it right again this year. They usually do (not counting 1993 when a band intimately related to the author of this article lost out to Angry Salad…but I digress). And as with acts like The Schemers in 1982, and Sasquatch & The Sick-A-Billys in 2005, Providence’s own Torn Shorts has taken top honors in 2013’s edition of the prestigious competition. Technically, Torn Shorts is the collective name for the creative efforts of the multitalented musician/songwriter Josh Grabert. Though Grabert has gained a great deal of notoriety performing live shows throughout New England as a one-man-band under the Torn Shorts banner, Grabert has enlisted the help of Zach Zarcone on bass, Nick Molak on guitar and drummer Brendan Tompkins to record Through The Mill. With the album’s opening track “Brow St,” Grabert demonstrates an ability to engage the listener with radio-friendly, hook-laden rock & roll. Delivered with a voice reminiscent of Albert Hammond combined with a bit of a “New Morning”era Bob Dylan, he establishes himself as a virile songwriter. This fact is underscored all the more by his creative use of space within the verses, an underused yet potent technique, not only with writers, but soloists as well. “’Drink that scotch’ she says before the bad news – that’s why I keep crying The Nice Guy Blues – I was never ready for the big show – the older I get the less I grow.” “Dying Houses” is a dark requiem for urban decay and those who endure the daily fight for survival. More than just a lament or a first-person decrying of their own dreadful situation, Torn Shorts presents an indictment on all of society for a broad sense of apathy toward their strife. “All these dying houses on these dying streets, in the deadest part of town – Don’t offer up any redemption, just cry your tears while we drown.” As lofty as much of the lyrical content is throughout Through The Mill, great musicianship is at the forefront of the album. The groove-drenched instrumental “Bob’s House” and the hypnotic “Whiskey Song” are standout examples of that tuneful proficiency. Quite cleverly, the latter employs a very cool technique of using what I presume was a mono demo as a looped backing track, and then overdubbing vocals and band on top of it. From what I understand, Josh Grabert and his Torn Shorts put on a wildly frenetic and energized live show, somewhat contrastive to the overall vibe of Through The Mill. Admittedly, I’ve yet to see them in action. But judging them solely on the album, I’m quite confident that WBRU got it right once again in 2013. Puzzling Pieces This weekend saw the opening of a very puzzling art exhibit at the Machines with Magnets studio in Pawtucket. Part bar, part performance space, part gallery and part recording studio, Machines with Magnets could be a called a puzzling environment on its own. In the gallery section of the space, you can now view recent work by Umberto Crenca. Crenca, the founder of Providence-based arts organization AS220, is known in the community as a champion of the arts and an advocate for unjuried art exhibitions. In his own work, he’s known for his use of art as social commentary. This show displays a recent part of his puzzle piece series, a decades-long endeavor that encompasses about 135 pieces created by Crenca. Not literally puzzle pieces – although those make some appearances – this series is really an exploration, in two dimensions, of social and political topics that intrigue, frustrate, or simply puzzle the artist. “Some of them are saying something pretty clear,” says Crenca, “and if others seem ambiguous, well, they might be. Some of them certainly approach issues I’m a little confused about, and that probably comes across – I hope it does.” The show is titled “Puzzled: Ode (Owed) to Channing?” and includes a large blow-up of Crenca’s first review, decades ago, by Providence Journal critic Channing Gray. Crenca credits the sometimes scathing review with inciting the creation of AS220 and a deeper dedication by Crenca to his own work. (see a TED talk on the subject here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD-T4LIddtE ) Compositionally, some of the work is striking, some deliberately off-balance or disturbing. All of it is visually and mentally intense – the sort of work you want to get up close to, to examine the details and numerous levels of meta-reference. “That’s Gaddafi’s severed head. The Black liquid is oil, the red is blood. I think that one’s pretty straightforward,” says Crenca, contrasting two of the pieces. “This one, though, takes a lot of explaining. I’m sure there are things in here that only mean something to me,” he says, rattling off a list of authors whose thoughts are represented in various abstract ways. Oh, and the numbers of the Fibonacci sequence are carefully scattered about that canvas as well. Some pieces feature tiny thought bubbles, on others you’ll find referential figures tucked in the corners. One piece includes a lot of glitter. Figuring out each theme can feel like assembling a puzzle in your mind. While the puzzle analogy has numerous applications to this collection of work – from pun to metaphor – it also seems like the artist may be hoping that someday, the collection as a whole will fit together like the pieces of a puzzle, granting insight into the conceptual and emotional makeup of the artist, complete with contradiction, confusion and clarity. A series of pieces and one very large work are on display from now until April 27th at Machines with Magnets, 400 Main St. Pawtucket, RI – www.machineswithmagnets.com Alt-Nation: Deer Tick Talks Negativity McCauley talks to Clarkin about Negativity album Deer Tick has been high rolling big time these past few months, buoyed by the positive reviews of their lasted release, Negativity (Partisan Records). In the past few months the boys have had another appearance on national television on “The Conan O’Brian Show,” recently completed a successful European tour, and singer/guitarist John McCauley somehow found time to get married by Stevie Nicks to singer/songwriter Vanessa Carlton. As the saying goes, there is no rest for the wicked, and Deer Tick is poised to take their wicked live show back on the road for another US run including a stint supporting The Hold Steady. Before starting the tour with The Hold Steady, Deer Tick will do a hometown show on the big stage in town at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel on March 14. I caught up with John McCauley over the phone a while back to talk about Negativity and the ongoing rock ‘n’ roll circus that is Deer Tick. Marc Clarkin: Your last record, Divine Providence (Partisan Records), was your rock ’n’ roll debauchery party record. Personally, I loved it, but I hear it wasn’t popular with some fans? John McCauley: That’s not exactly true. I think there were a lot of fans who wanted a folkier record and it threw a number of them off. As far as hatred for the record, I don’t think anyone really hated it. People kind of forget that the second half of the record is pretty chill, you know. It really starts with a such a bang that it sets the tone in a way that makes the more Deer Ticky songs like “Miss K” sound louder and more abrasive than they really are. MC: With Negativity, was there a conscious move to go in another direction from Divine Providence? JM: No, it’s just the songs that came out. If they happen to sound like Divine Providence or be more in that vein, we would have done it again. I don’t know. I don’t really go for anything with my writing process. I don’t come up with a goal of what type of song I want to write. It’s kind of just whatever happens, happens, you know? MC: When you are writing songs, do you start on guitar or piano, or do you just have a lyric? JM: Lately I’ve been writing a lot on piano. I wrote a lot of the songs on Negativity starting with piano. Typically it starts with a couple of lines or a melody. I don’t know because they all start differently. I don’t really have a formula or a method. MC: On the piano parts, a lot of the middle parts of Negativity remind me of Warren Zevon, who I know you love, or a Jackson Browne/late ’70s singer/songwriter type of stuff. Were you listening to more of that stuff when you were writing this record? JM: I think on the piano, I’m kind of a rhythmic piano player. I’m a guitar player piano player. The chords I know and the way I find myself around the piano kind of just lends itself to that style of music better than something else more jazzy, classic rock ‘n’ roll or whatever. MC: Now Negativity… I don’t know how you ever came up with that title with a collection of songs about broken engagements, drugs and your dad’s incarceration. You even got poor Ian (O’Neil) depressed with his song being titled “The Dream’s in The Ditch.” JM: I definitely came up with the title of the record way before all the songs were written.