I've been following Grape Soda since they first started playing. I was expecting a lot from this album, but this exceeds whatever expectations any of us might have had. Look past all the keyboards & echo if you need to, Mat Lewis may be the best songwriter currently working in Athens today. Grape Soda’s music merges the robot world of Gary Numan & Kraftwerk with Motown drums and Stax vocals that end up sounding like an alien observing the strange patterns of earth--and becoming very sad & angry about the whole ridiculous mess we find ourselves in. There are two members of Grape Soda. They are brothers co-existing in a band—not Gallagher nor Davies, but closer to the unspoken psychic bond of Ron & Russell Mael from Sparks. Grape Soda is Mat Lewis (the tiny one who plays the organ) and Ryan Lewis (the less tiny one who plays the drums).
They have just released their first album, the unfortunately named Form a Sign, and it is the best thing I’ve heard all year. From anyone. Anywhere. The fuzzy organ echo sound of their demo now has slightly less echo & fuzz, more polish and more control, which at first might seem disappointing, but it enables you to hear the words, such glorious words. It had never occured to me that ‘Obvious Signs was sung from the viewpoint of someone looking back at our underclass struggles, our working unfulfillment, from a post-revolution future—pointing out the obvious signs that such a revolution was inevitable. It turns out that the lyrics, ‘we all should be dancing / so why aren’t you dancing? / everyone is dancing / you’re the only one not dancing,’ wasn’t an admonishment to the stand-still people at Grape Soda shows. It’s a tribute to that person who is no longer entertained by what passes for entertainment. Lewis continues, ‘was it cause you saw / things you had before? / Things you couldn’t believe / but you did of course.’ The ‘you’ in this story has seen behind the curtain. ‘Obvious Signs’ proves Mat Lewis a more astute soicologist than most of this town's would-be politicians, displaying a rarity in the pop/rock/underground world today—empathy, an acknowledgement of other people, insight & ideas that extend further than one’s self.
This is what the album looks like.
Yes, that is one of the uglier covers in recent memory. Or to put it more diplomatically, let's just say that an album like this, swimming in ideas & mystery & imagination, deserves a better cover than this one.
After years spent searching for signs of life in Athens music, I can't stress how refreshing this album is. Grape Soda knows what they want to say, and Grape Soda is saying it clearly. Form a Sign starts with a call to arms and ends with an anthem. Grape Soda means business. The longest song is 3 ½ minutes.
Listen to 'Hot Toes.' The tightness in my spine, these butterflies, this need to listen to it again & again, this song affects me in ways that very little music does anymore—anywhere, not just in Athens. Everything about this song is perfect, the precise repeat delay of the keyboard—the wheezing noises in the background, an asthmatic caught in a deteriorating relationship, a crumbling world. There’s a desperation in Mat Lewis’ singing, a willingness to chase the story he is telling wherever it might go. It doesn’t show up as often on the album as it does when you see them live, but I guess that comes with the territory. One more reason why I hate studios & producers so much.
One last quibble. If I'd had my way this would have been the first song on the album.
Nothing wrong with 'Not Mine,' the song that opens the album. But I've always been a fan of burying the obvious pop single around track 3 or 4. Besides, this song--performed here in a different arrangement than usual--is the sound of someone who's been hidden away for the last couple of years, sorting through all of the world's bullshit, and they've decided to tell you what they've figured out, as they kick open the door and pin you against the wall. It would have made a perfect opener.
Sometimes I feel like I live in some strange alternate universe—one where bands like Dead Confederate, The Whigs, Modern Skirts, Venice is Sinking, Reptar, Hopeforagoldensummer, etc. are held up as the best current representations of local music. Which is pretty ironic, considering you can go to NYC, or Boston, or Chicago, or San Francisco, and find plenty of bands who sound just like them. Hell, in a lot of these bands’ cases, you could go there ten years ago and still hear plenty of stuff that sounded like them. I had no idea that sounding like Silverchair with less catchy songs had anything to do with Athens, let alone music. It hadn’t occurred to me that a less-edgy Ben Folds could mean shit to anyone over the age of 13 (apparently that band now agrees with me, as they’ve decided to ‘experiment’ by—are you ready for this?—recording in their bedroom; oh, the courage). I guess some people out there believe that Athens Music is about bands rushing to emulate outdated trends, bands who put themselves in a box and then want you to congratulate them for their excellent taste in boxes. But I digress. This isn’t about the current state of the Athens Georgia Music Scene Inc., it’s about Grape Soda. Although with this album arriving on our doorstep like a breath of fresh air, it’s hard not to mistake one for the other.
Any band in this town who doesn't listen to this album and hear a challenge being issued, a gauntlet being thrown, a white glove from some old cartoon being slapped across their face, is fucking kidding themselves.
