Fresh Pepper, Weird Lines, and Pharis & Jason Romero
Fresh Pepper
Fresh Pepper // Telephone Explosion Records
Fresh Pepper is a gently comedic and relentlessly groovy album from the new Toronto super group. Like a great meal, each collaborator adds an important and unique ingredient to this culinary-inspired record. Drawing from their past in the food service, Andre Ethier and Joseph Shabason arrange a mind-bending array of Toronto collaborators from the likes of Bernice, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, and Dan Bejar of Destroyer. Altogether they blend their influences into a jazz driven sonic experience that feels a bit like sitting near the kitchen in a nice restaurant. Cutlery clinks, the dull murmur of conversation hangs in the background, vocals are delicately out of tune as though they’re being pulled from the tired throat of a dinner performer nearing the end of their set. Each artist’s unique addition comes on clear and strong, like biting down onto a fresh peppercorn, your senses immediately filled with life as each member adds their own personal touch.
I have personally followed Ethier and Shabason’s work gleefully for years as they’ve each released notable records both together and separately. You never quite know what you’re gonna get from these fellas, and Fresh Pepper is no exception. I was pleased to find that it leaned heavily on Shabason’s jazz sensibilities as he floats, flutters, dips, and dives around a layer of thick bass. Not absent are Ethier’s gentle vocal ruminations, but he settles deep into a low, comforting timbre reminiscent of Leonard Cohen for the majority of the album.
Because of the long list of unique collaborators, Fresh Pepper tends to wander into many different sonic realms. Almost like a restaurant playlist that nearly suits the vibe, but has a tendency to throw a curveball every now and then. Bass comes through strong front to back, but sometimes it frees itself from the jazz shackles that are so clearly holding it back and dives headlong into drum n' bass while the rest of the band scurries aimlessly trying to find their place. And then, just like that, the dinner rush subsides and peace returns as the last few diners sip their coffee with their last bite of dessert.
Fresh Pepper oozes authenticity as it vacillates between satire, nostalgia, warmth, and utter creative freedom. Every collaborator’s voice comes through eloquently and effectively, but it never feels like any of them are taking themselves too seriously. Few albums this conceptual are so fun and fresh. It goes through a rollercoaster of tones, but it’s like riding the high and lows of a busy Friday night in the restaurant. This album is Masterchef worthy, and I loved it, down to the very last bite.
- Clay Geddert
Weird Lines
Weird Lines // Self-Released
“Conjuring the grim whimsy of the first record, with a warm torn sweater on a brisk city walk they move forward.” was the last line of the press one sheet on this album and it’s the perfect opening line to this review. Weird Lines captures that moment when your emotions come to a bubbly boil and holds it there frozen in time.
Opening track “A Dog In The Eye Of The Storm” sets the tone for this album perfectly. This is an instantly loveable record. From the first beat of the first measure to the last, it soothes and warms the heart. It does not falter. It is nostalgic and glowing with laughter in the sunshine. It is hopeful and sad at the same time. There is a gifted sense of melody in these songs that are both simple and intricate.
The band forges on with the chunky goodness and you start to get the idea. Stylistically it’s 90s indie rock. The simplicity of the two chord progressions might try to convince you it’s veering close to shoegaze but the turnaround at two minutes in “All Eyes And Smiles” is so choice it knocks you back. Combine that with the quarter time choruses and you start to appreciate some masterful arrangements.
And it just stays compelling and branches further and further out. Tempo dynamics, beautiful lyrics, raw performances. It all adds up to a “what if Pavement wrote better songs?” situation. I don’t say that lightly, this album is that good. It may not ever reach the cult status of some early Pavement records, but it’s that level or above in quality to this guy.
Somehow you find yourself at “Five Cents A Dance” and wonder how you got there. The sound has captivated you to the point where what you hear now sounds like a classic early 60s beach party band but still sounds like the record you’ve been listening to the whole time.
There is no stand out track on the album, every single song is a gem. The flow between tracks is seamless. The chorus of “Killing Me Hardly” is perfect. The whole album reminds you of classic albums you love while bringing you something entirely new. File under “must listen, must share”.
- Joel Klaverkamp
Pharis & Jason Romero
Tell ’Em You Were Gold // Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Papillon, Big Blue, Clara, Birdie, Mother, Bella, Gourdo, and The Beast.
These are the names of the banjos used on the newest Pharis & Jason Romero record, Tell ’Em You Were Gold, out June 17, 2022 on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. What’s even more impressive is the fact that Jason Romero built all eight himself specifically for this record. Each banjo on this record started with an idea of a sound, a feeling, or an aesthetic, and each one makes Jason play and feel a different way.
As a fellow luthier (stringed instrument maker), I know how much work this would require and I must say, it’s quite an amazing feat. You can check out his beautiful instruments over at romerobanjos.com.
This is Pharis and Jason’s seventh album as a duo, and the first since 2020’s Bet on Love, which won praise from the BB, NPR, and American Songwriter who said, “To call Bet on Love anything other than masterpiece would be a disservice”.
This new album from the husband and wife team truly is a banjo lovers paradise with almost half the songs being public domain songs arranged by the duo and the other half, beautifully written original material.
The duo met at a fiddle jam in 2007 and combined forces shortly after. Three months later they were married and then their first release as the appellation folk duo was 2011’s A Passing Glimpse. The debut record garnered them a New/Emerging Artist of the Year award at the Canadian Folk Alliance.
The accolades continued to pour in for this talented couple, with a highlighted double Juno award winning third album called A Wanderer I’ll stay.
Tell ’Em You Were Gold was written and recorded in an old barn on the couple’s homestead in Horsefly, British Columbia. The barn had long been run down, and between building banjos, adventuring outdoors, and loving up their two kids, Pharis and Jason restored the building themselves, milling their own spruce, hoisting beams, and rebuilding a roof originally covered in tin printing plates.
Again, a very impressive feat. This couple defines “do-it-yourself”.
“The music made on this record was made in the spirit of that working transformation and in the spirit of the history that old barn contains,” they write in the album’s liner notes. And while the intimacy of the old building does make it onto the record in the form of crackling stoves and tapping feet, the sense of ease that glows from the album’s center gives it the warmth of a hearth in a chilly BC winter.
This is a great road trip record, a great doing things around the house record, a good anything record. You can drop the needle and just lay back with your eyes closed and drink in this beautiful crafted bluegrass statement.
The pair’s talents seem to have no top and I’m sure we can expect many great things in the future. On June 17th we get the latest snapshot, which is terribly exciting and should not go unnoticed by fans of this genre… or any genre really, this music is so welcoming and so truly beautiful.
- Chris Vasseur
