Unbunny
- Snow Tires
"I've
been known to walk at night where street lights end and dark
begins
And
lately I've been occupied with things I should have left
behind
All my shortfalls notwithstanding I could
give a lot to you
Press this dream up muddy river underneath
the drowsy moon"
New album - the fifth - from Jarid del Deo (Unbunny/Nervous
Plants) with help from old friends Steve Haruch, Gregg
Porter (The Hotel Alexis/Milkweed), Julie Law-Linck, and
Two Ton
Santa Records' Guy Capecelatro III and new friends Paul
Chastain (The
Velvet Crush / Matthew Sweet / Menck & Chastain /
Choo Choo Train / The Nines / The Stupid Cupids / The Big
Maybe / Bag
o' Shells) and Parasol's own Roy Ewing (Braid / Very
Secretary / Days In December / Mary Me / lowercase n /
Grand Theft
Autumn Records co-owner). Recorded with Sidney
Alexis
(The Hotel Alexis), Paul Chastain, and The Rights (Rogue
Wave).
After releasing 4 albums in the US and appearing
on a variety of compilations in Japan, New Hampshirite
Jarid
found himself moving from Portsmouth to Champaign-Urbana,
Illinois for a year-and-a-half. I don't recall if we found
him working at Fannie May Candies or if he found us at
Parasol HQ, but we couldn't be happier to have made his
aquaintance.
As if sneaking Pixies and Mint Meltaways from the back
room wasn't enough to satisfy him, Jarid began recording
bittersweet
song after song at his home. His chance meeting of Roy
and then, Paul, gave him an opportunity to realize these
songs
more fully at his home away from home.
Meanwhile the rest
of us Parasolarians began catching up on Unbunny's past
releases. We were familiar with the band's second album "The
Willis Files" (Esque Records) because it made a bit
of a stir on the college radio charts in 1997, this was
followed by "Fission,
Romance, The West" (Esque/Paris Caramel Records),
and then "Black
Strawberries" (Two Ton Santa
Records). Our jaws dropped upon hearing the poignant Neutral
Milk Hotel-meets-Matthew
Sweet styled pop found on "Black
Strawberries" and
we immediately begged Jarid to release his next album with
us. He recorded in C-U with Paul, Adam
Schmitt, and by
himself, in Portsmouth with longtime friends, and in San
Francisco
with The Rights (who have been tracking songs for Rogue
Wave).
With a wealth of highway miles in the rearview
mirror, a tragic break-up heavy on his soul, and a final
return
to his Northeastern home, Jarid pulls away from it all
with "Snow
Tires"; a masterful new album intimately plumbing
life's changes while growing musically and lyrically. This
is one
of those records we lifelong music fans dream about as
it combines the fragility of Elliott
Smith, the humanity
of
Neutral
Milk Hotel, the melodic sensibility of Matthew
Sweet, and the careworn metaphors of The
Mendoza Line. "Snow
Tires" is a confessional masterwork that flows like
a page from a diary from an engaging artist who, after
releasing consistently cool records on under-the-radar
record labels
(most of whom have dissolved just before or shortly after
an Unbunny release - yikes!), will finally have
an opportunity to reach a wider audience via Parasol's Hidden
Agenda Records.
Jarid del Deo is a musical treasure whose time has come
and whose heartrending melodies and homespun tunes will
capture
the hearts and minds of fans with an affection for the
aforementioned bands as well as critical faves Sufjan
Stevens and Iron
And Wine and anyone who loves pulling for the underdog and
then seeing him win by a nose.
A displaced musician, a
broken
heart, and - did I mention the children's choir? - all
the ingredients are all here for a stupendous album. "Snow
Tires" is a labor of love for both artist and listener,
I cannot recommend this album any more highly.
"Me and James in the backyard
You and Nancy
in the kitchen
James says you told Nanc
That you think
of
me differently now
I was in the garage
Grabbed the last of my boxes
I checked
your oil for ya
You could use some good tires before
the storm"
And the critics swoon:
"Indie pop survivor Jarid del Dio finally secures solid label representation
with Parasol's release of Snow Tires, his fifth album under various
monikers and incarnations. Neutral Milk Hotel is still a big influence
here, as del Dio's
songs dawdle and coalesce with a similar disregard for structure, but
with an uncanny knack for plaintive melodies and weirdly insightful turns
of
phrase. "All
over town," he begins on "Casserole," "The flat-chested
trailer brides/Their braces and bottle caps jangle like tambourines." And
we can see del Dio wandering through the connecting yards and hanging
laundry, dragging his white elephant of a failed relationship on a long
fraying leash. "I
Leave Stones Unturned" is a sparkly, bittersweet pop song driven
by scratchy electric guitar, warm electric piano, and Roy Ewing's punchy
drums. Its chorus
is reprised offhandedly at the start of "I Knock Things I Haven't
Tried," a
quieter number guided by acoustic guitar, subtle synths, and what sounds
like a sample of air brakes on a city bus. It's another side to the same
argument,
like the whispers after the screams. Maybe its del Dio's warbly, Neil
Young-as-whiny-barista vocal, but Unbunny can at times suggest a sparer
version of Mercury Rev, or
even Modest Mouse. There's a similar sense of a psychological struggle
twisting behind the tossed-off phrases and pop culture pipe bombs; the
music is quieter,
but informed with those same qualities of squinty indie pop. The gentle "FM" is
a big, big standout, beginning with a kid's chorus harmonizing like a
Lilliputian version of the Polyphonic Spree, and "Pink Lemonade" really
plays up that Neil Young-ness, offering dusty acoustic strums and shuffling
drums
tickled by twangy guitar fuzz. Fans of smart stuff like Elf Power and
Clem Snide, take note." - All Music Guide
"Jarid
del Deo’s trio Unbunny has somehow flown under the radar
through a gradual migration from Washington state to New Hampshire,
releasing a series of pleasingly folk-tinged lo-fi discs on
a parade of small labels along the way. Influences are displayed
prominently on sleeves with the band’s fifth LP, Snow
Tires: the stark acoustic strumming of “Nightwalking”
and “I Knock Things I Haven’t Tried” is
a direct lift from the Elliott Smith fake book, while del
Deo’s nasal voice nods to Neil Young, particularly on
understated full-band workouts like the piano-laced “Nothing
Comes to Rest.” But what initially seems an impressive
style-exercise gradually reveals Unbunny’s unique charms,
largely through cryptic poetry and personal lyrics. On “Pink
Lemonade,” del Deo repeatedly pleads, “Don’t
leave me with the shakes” to a melody reminiscent of
the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down.”
His appeals apparently rebuffed, the closing title track finds
the narrator unable to summon more than a whisper as he hauls
boxes from his girlfriend’s garage and frets over the
condition of her tires. Surveying his small town’s Main
Street Christmas decorations, he mumbles “Do they really
think a string of colored lights is gonna rescue me?”
Del Deo may not be the sunniest sort, but Snow Tires is the
best kind of bummer." File Under: sweet
melancholy Recommended If You Like: Songs:
Ohia, early Elliott Smith, mellow Neil Young, Wilco, M. Ward,
the One AM Radio
-CMJ New Music Monthly
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