In my natural curiosity, I searched out the meaning of the word/phrase "Tal Vez," discovering that it is a Spanish adverb, in English: "maybe" or "perhaps." It is also the name of a popular Ricky Martin song.
The local version of this phenomenon is embodied in one Jeff Lloyd, who I’m pretty sure is from California (East Coast people could never be this strange). Jeff played in a band called the Veronica Cartwrights when I first moved to town in 1992, and for a spell in ’95 or ’96 we worked opposite shifts in the booth at the Northampton parking garage, playing our guitars and crafting at least a few tunes in-between taking tickets and making change. The Cartwrights were bizarre and chaotic, but had some sort of lo-fi pop genius tucked within the folds of their noise-rock aesthetic, and much of this continues to flourish on the Tal Vez album. Guitar feedback screeches enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and a lot of it sounds like it was recorded on one microphone and then multi-tracked over with layered unison vocals.
As much as I’ve always sort of loathed this "anti-production value" vibe, I still admire the creative instrumentation, addition of loops, drum machines and other weird things here and there, and I have to admit the songs are cool. There’s something of a lo-fi compendium of influences going on here, from The Pixies through Sebadoh to Pavement and early early Beck. Well-thought-out guitar parts, rich, fluid vocal melodies and nifty sound effects. There’s also some watery, reverbed-out stuff with WWII-type marching beats behind it ("Red Algae Bloom") that conjures up the first few Peter Gabriel solo albums. Truly eclectic.
"Fuckstart My Heart" has a boing-boingy groove that’s kinda Beastie Boys, and the straight-ahead "Tachyon Rock," (maybe/perhaps my favorite) is straight out of the Stooges/Fugazi playbook. Still, there are some tunes ("Dr. Spooky’s Wildest" for example) that are really cool but somehow are done disservice by not recording them with better fidelity. Kiss The Boys Goodbye alumnus/wife & new mama Jenna B. cameos on "Mi Nombre es Sasha," bringing a little VU or Sonic Youth vibe to the mix. The lyrics? Well, I think that’s mostly where the California comes in… totally odd but fascinating; a voyage into (for me) an alien mindset. I have a hunch that Frank Black might truly understand them…
