Chicago quartet Earth Lodge brings us a standard American rock band lineup: guitar (Sam Pepper, who also handles vocals), bass (Matthew DiCarlo), keyboards (John Mann) and drums (Aaron Russo). Their sound is familiar, even comforting. DiCarlo’s sometimes-melodic, sometimes-driving bass is locked in with Russo’s drums. Pepper’s guitar is a little bit crunchy, a little bit funky. Mann selects round, clean tones to fill out the space, and lets the organs warble to add a bit of texture here and there.
It’s familiar--and it works. The material for their Something for the Mourning LP is drawn from their live performances, and the disc reflects that Earth Lodge is clearly a live band. The resulting seven-song set is refreshing. The music lives and breathes. It’s almost as if Earth Lodge walked into the studio, tuned their guitars, miked everything up, plugged into a 16-track reel-to-reel and laid it all down in one day. Earth Lodge takes us out with “Lapse in Memory” a track where electric piano and dueling guitar lines evoke a bit of Steely Dan. They build to a bass-driven chorus with Leslie-drenched organ and finish off with a ripping solo from Pepper featuring some Van Halen-style finger-tapping. We can hear other influences throughout the album. “Psychotic Breakdown” feels like an uptempo version of the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down,” complete with Billy Preston-esque Wurlitzer solo and a lilting 6/8 feel. “Calling” builds to a Freebird-like ending, although Earth Lodge swings more than Skynyrd ever did. In “Tried and True,” Earth Lodge breaks out a few jazz chords and offers an introspective middle-section breakdown. The progression in the title track feels a little John Mayer-ish; this cut is a little more layered than the others--they do use a few of those extra tape tracks to overdub where needed. The pick of the album is “Strange Observations.” Here, Earth Lodge shows they are clearly a live band: we can hear the buzz from the single-coil Fender pickups, as we should. Pepper’s guitar evokes mid-‘90s college rock, nicely set against Mann’s ‘70s-style electric piano. Russo’s drums shine here, offering tasteful support and drive, and some delicious ghost notes. All you drum programmers, take note--this is what real drums sound like. We know when it’s the computer playing! Thank you, Earth Lodge, for Something for the Mourning, and thank you especially for not producing the life out of the recording. It’s so nice to hear a band, playing and recording as a band. I look forward to your next release. I’m enjoying this one in the meantime.
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