Kevin
Tihista's Red Terror - Judo
New album from Chicago's Kevin Tihista,
a collection of beguiling lush-pop orchestrations, the follow-up
to 'Don't Breathe A Word' (Atlantic/Division One 2001). For fans
of The Webb Brothers and George Harrison, The Smiths and Elliott
Smith, Rufus Wainright and Todd Rundgren, Big Star and Dave Matthews,
Nick Drake and The Chamber Strings, June & The Exit Wounds
and Linus Of Hollywood.
Utilizing an arsenal that includes sweetly sarcastic vocals and expansive harmonies,
grand piano and Playstation, acoustic and electric guitars, string and horns,
bass and drums, KT and his Red Terror have created a sophomore album of heartbreaking
popsongs, richly arranged, incorporating the very best of the last forty years
of pop music.
PRAISE
FOR "JUDO"
For Kevin Tihista, love is not war - it's a martial art. His sophomore disc, Judo,
is filled with odes that struggle with the universal emotion. Judo isn't
quite as confessional as the set-up indicates - he approaches love from a conceptual
point of view, telling and only rarely showing. As with
his debut, Don't Breathe A Word, commonplace sentiment is trumped by Tihista's
flair for melody. Sounding like Elliott Smith at his most orchestrated and least
scabrous, Tihista consistently cranks out tunes that are comfortable and slightly
psychedelic, as though he only allows himself a contact high before he records.
Ellis and Tom Clark (a.k.a. Epicycle) add heaping layers of sounds to Tihista's
infectious guitar pop. But while Tihista's songwriting is fit, the album's spine
is its production; Tihista and Ellis Clark like turning the grandiosity up to
level 11, as they do on the
album's soaring opener, 'Back to Budapest" - it's a move that's only appropriate,
considering the gooey subject matter. "Oh No, Not Again" is packed
with dirty, ragged riffs with multi-tracked vocals that move from speaker to
speaker, swelling and contracting. It's flat-out headphone sex. Knob-twiddling
is one thing, but creating melodies is another. When they merge like they do
on Judo's best, it's enough to make the prosaic resound. - Richard M. Juzwiak/CMJ
PRAISE FOR "DON'T BREATHE A
WORD"
"A self-proclaimed recluse with stage fright, his vocals are charmingly
hushed, often almost whispered. Acoustic guitar and drums dominate Don't Breathe
A Word, but songs like the baroque piano ballad "Beautiful" and the
airy, bell-laced "Pretty Please" are the more charming on the record.
Tihista's songwriting draws heavily from like-minded acoustic-poppers like Elliott
Smith, but it's his inventive, honest lyrical approach that separates him from
his influences… With supposedly 100-plus songs in the can, this is thankfully
far from Tihista's last breath." CMJ
"After a couple of low-key EPs, the first album from Chicago based Tihista
transcended the singer-songwriter genre with unobtrusive lo-fi mini-symphonies
of layered harmony and swelling synth. Singing in a half-whisper that makes Nick
Drake sound aggressive, Tihista has arguably made the most romantic record of
the year." UNCUT, #19 of the 70 Best Albums Of The Year
(2001)
"This album is filled with languorous, acoustic-based tunes whose sound
falls somewhere between Elliott Smith and a non-angst-ridden John Lennon." AMPLIFIER
"Full-length from sweetly sarcastic Chicago popster… Tihista's mordant,
melodic songs and voice evoke both Harry Nilsson and Elliott Smith, as witty
in outlook as they are rich in harmony and chromatic splendour." MOJO
"Tihista's melodies are subtle and he sings in a near whisper, shaping his
hooks with a deliberate grace. Though the influence of John Lennon, Big Star,
and contemporary pop sophisticates like Elliott Smith and Eric Matthews are readily
apparent, Tihista's got his own style -- and his own weak points. "Some
people have taken jabs about my lyrics," he admits. "They're all pretty
much the same song -- crappy love, love gone bad, love gone good. So now I'm
kind of fucked-up -- I gotta start singing songs about cars or my dog, but I've
been trying and I just can't do it, so you get what you get. I'm the happiest
guy in the world, but for some reason I love tragic
love songs." CHICAGO READER
THE STORY SO FAR… Three years
ago Parasol falls head over heels in love with Chicago popster Kevin Tihista's
demos: first eleven songs on a CDR, then a dozen more, then handfuls of songs
arriving every other week it seemed like… It's all on the up and up, Kevin's
a certifiable pop-genius (we've got the paperwork around here somewhere) with
imagination out the wazoo, he's got Chicago producer-guru Ellis Clark (Chamber
Strings, June & The Exit Wounds, Epicycle) recording everything, he's got
his best friend and former bandmate (in Triple Fast Action) Wes Kidd's employer,
Silent Partner Management (Cheap Trick) behind him, and the songs, the songs
just break our hearts! Very friendly and enthusiastic negotiations commence:
Kevin needs exposure, Parasol needs (in the deepest most profound way) to release
his music, and the proposed album quickly turns into an auspicious, audacious
double CD debut, a 20 song introduction to
Kevin's world.
OUR GREAT IDEA was to help create enough buzz to attract a larger label,
as a professional stepping-stone this was a role we understood completely. Well,
turns out he didn't need us… Within weeks Division One/Atlantic (Webb Brothers)
signed him up and released the 11-song album 'Don't Breathe a Word' under the
name Kevin Tihista's Red Terror in September 2001. We were heartbroken, but that's
how it goes. In the UK an EP appeared on the esteemed Rough Trade label and the
album was released by Blanco Y Negro. 'Don't Breathe A Word' was honored as #19
on Uncut Magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of 2001, Kevin played shows,
the music press wrote nice things about him... This side of the Atlantic, Atlantic
was having "trouble" "promoting" 'Don't Breathe a Word',
and to really cap off what more or less was a tragedy considering how damn brilliant
the record was, Division One closed their doors in October, leaving Parasol's
very favorite
singer/songwriter without a label… Being Kevin's most vocal champions, we
felt our window of opportunity opening again. Our single-minded enthusiasm reaps
rich rewards. In the interest of maintaining his album's availability 'Don't
Breathe A Word' will now be re-released by Parasol Records, along with his new
album 'Judo'. |
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