CD Odyssey Disc 1752: The Growlers

After a long day in the sun and a few too many cocktails I awoke this morning with a head full of cotton batting. This too, shall pass. While I wait for that happy occasion, let’s talk music, shall we?

Disc 1752 is…City Club

Artist: The Growlers

Year of Release: 2016

What’s up with the Cover?  Outside a club. Based on the thinning crowds and desultory vibe I’d guess this is about 30 minutes after the lights have come up. There are people heading home, people hooking up and people chatting in the hopes that a hook up is still in the cards.

It looks to be a shit neighbourhood, and I encourage everyone here to get home safe. Even that guy in the Miami Vice white suit situation, who looks like a total douche.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila and I were planning a trip to San Francisco about seven years ago and we were looking for bands we might enjoy seeing while we were there. This involved me exploring a whole bunch of different bands who happened to be playing, and the best one I found was the Growlers.

We didn’t see them, though.  They were sold out and we went to the Frances Luke Accord instead, who were also good (review at Disc 1051).

How It Stacks Up: I have three albums by the Growlers. “City Club” is in a statistical tie for first with “Chinese Fountain” but since you don’t not-pay me to equivocate, I’ll put “City Club” second. Listen to both and decide for yourselves. Here’s the full list, since this is my last Growlers review in my collection, at least for now:

1. Chinese Fountain: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1091)
2. City Club: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
3. Natural Affair: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1496)

Rating: 4 stars

There is a lot going on with “City Club”, multiple beats, grooves, thumps, riffs all dancing with each other. It would feel like a late-night jam session if it weren’t so damned tight and deliberate. Instead, it is an orchestra of cool, and you’re invited into the pit to experience it in 3-D.

The Growlers call this auditory soup “Beach Goth” and I can’t think of a better name for it. Beach because the whole thing feels laid back and chill. Goth because it is mysterious and dark in its delivery. The beach at night, full moon, sans bonfire.

“City Club” feels like the soundtrack to one of those movies where all the action happens in a single night, and the plot gets crazier and crazier with each passing hour. Streetlights surrounded by clouds of moths, neon buzzing, steam coming up from manhole covers, and random weirdos sauntering and swaying down the sidewalk.

Presiding over all this crazy groove are the sleazy swagger vocals of lead singer Brooks Nielsen. He’s a bit nasally and he won’t bowl you over with power, but he is exactly what this kind of music needs. You can sink into the beat and tap your toes or you can float lazily about it all by focusing on Nielsen. He doesn’t tell stories so much as he paints evocative scenes and then encourages you to wax philosophical over what you see.

This existential angst threads itself through the lyrics. Saddest (and most beautiful) is the broken relationship described in “When You Were Made”:

“His old boots finally wore out
And the fire in his belly faded
Her supple breasts sadly sagged
As her tender heart grew jaded

“A life of love is a long time
When you know that it's only one time”

A small comfort is provided in the song’s refrain of “they were in love when you were made”. Just not anymore.

The end effect is a record you can enjoy in multiple ways. It is good for a dance, a thoughtful wallow or even a drive, and it gets better the more you listen, each time exploring a new element. I started with the unique tone of Nielsen’s voice, then I went to the drum beat, then the groove. The lyrics came last, which is not common for me, as that’s usually where I start.

Whatever order you choose to explore “City Club” you’ll enjoy the journey from start to finish.

Best tracks: City Club, I’ll Be Around, Vacant Lot, When You Were Made, Rubber & Bone

CD Odyssey Disc 1496: The Growlers

Apologies for the delay in posting, gentle readers. I had a very busy week and have only finally found the time this morning.

Disc 1496 is…. Natural Affair

Artist: The Growlers

Year of Release: 2019

What’s up with the Cover? It’s a house party! This house party looks pretty awesome and I imagine I was invited by some friend but don’t know anyone there. The extrovert in me wants to talk to everyone in this photo.

Admittedly this party has at least two too many kids at it. I’d probably brave talking first to the woman on the couch (yeah, she’s got one of the kids, but he appears to be sleeping). Or wait…is that a toddler breastfeeding? And is everyone staring? It appears I’ve walked into this party of strangers at an awkward moment.

I like to think my arrival breaks any tension as people welcome the distraction of a gregarious stranger. I proceed to talk to everyone at the party – even the woman on the couch who looks like she’s got a story or two to tell. OK, maybe not that guy with the kid sitting on the chair, but definitely his partner in green. They’ll have to leave early, because of the kid. Around that time I might be getting tired, and his departure will free up that chair near the kitchen (where I will have spent the majority of the evening). I’ll take a load off and then maybe see who is still out on the deck before calling a cab home.

All in all, it was a magical imaginary evening.

How I Came To Know It: I have been a Growlers fan since I first discovered them looking for a fun live event in San Francisco (see previous entries to see how that turned out).

How It Stacks Up: I now have three Growlers albums. Of those three, “Natural Affair” does come in third. At the Olympics, that’s a bronze!

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

The Growlers’ music is the soundtrack to every cool party that went well into the wee morning hours, but where nothing bad happened. Sure there will be heartfelt testimonials and soul-baring confessions near the end, but no tears and a whole lot of love.

“Natural Affair” is the band’s latest record, and it once again captures that compelling mix of musical influences that they have dubbed “beach goth”. The band has even doubled down on that moniker, forming a label with the same title.

Beach Goth is hard to define, but it mixes eighties emo music, yacht rock, sixties surfer guitar and disco. “Natural Affair” doubles down on the amount of disco. You could argue that the drums are mostly seventies soul, but the line between that and disco is thin, and definitely gets crossed here.

The Growlers don’t make dance music so much as they make tunes with a groove. You’ll want to sway and even throw a lazily bent arm in the air from time to time, but you can dance along safely without risk of spilling your drink. Songs like “Social Man” and “Foghorn Town” are prime examples, with an easy flow that will make your backbone slide. I didn’t really pay close attention to the lyrics, but I know these tunes left me feeling something between chill and funky.

Lead singer Brooks Nielson is a big part of this magic. He somehow manages to sing in a style that sounds like his head voice is coming out of the back of his throat. It makes his tone both rich and ethereal, which aren’t two things that usually go together. “Shadow Woman” exemplify his ability to sound like he’s wandering through a song, with a sneaky sense of timing that always draws you back to the groove going on underneath.

I found it hard to focus on the lyrics of this record, but I think it was just because the structure of the songs was more interesting. They are mood pieces more than anything, and the Growlers know how to make hopeful music but with a lot of minor chords. There is comfort in these tunes, but it is the complicated comfort of late nights and contemplation.

It doesn’t always work, and usually it is when they reach for unlikely metaphors where they lose me. “Pulp of Youth” and “Coinstar” are musically solid, but their titular expressions were used in a way that felt added on, rather than organic. Also, I kept mishearing “coinstar” as “coin slot” which was, you know, quite a different metaphor indeed.

That said, when circumstances trap you with one album for an entire week, you quickly find out if that album has staying power. “Natural Affair” had plenty of chances to bore me, but it never happened. If anything I appreciated the record a little bit more on every listen. I would start people interested in the Growlers with the superior “Chinese Fountain” (reviewed back at Disc 1091) but if you did hear “Natural Affair” first I’m confident you’d still have a good time.

Best tracks: Natural Affair, Social Man, Foghorn Town, Shadow Woman, Truly, Stupid Things

CD Odyssey Disc 1091: The Growlers

It felt like I hadn’t had a musical discovery, but this week I had a breakthrough with late eighties/early nineties rapper Big Daddy Kane. I bought two of his albums on the weekend and I’m looking forward to exploring his music even further.

This next album is a far cry from rap, but it is another “new to me” album – a band I discovered last year but I’m pretty excited about.

Disc 1091 is…Chinese Fountain

Artist: The Growlers

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover? Chinatown neon in all its splendor! I don’t read Chinese but my guess would be that the characters in the lower right spell out “Chinese Fountain.”

How I Came To Know It: Last year when Sheila and I were planning our trip to San Francisco, I checked to see if there were any bands in town we might want to see while we were there. Nobody I knew was playing, so I started investigating the bands that were playing. The Growlers stuck out immediately and I went to buy tickets but…all three of their shows were sold out. I kept searching and ended up with the Francis Luke Accord (reviewed back at Disc 1051).

While I never got to see the Growlers live, I did get hooked on their sound, and bought their new release “City Club” before we left for our trip anyway. I couldn’t find “Chinese Fountain” until I went to Amoeba Records during our trip to San Francisco, and there it was! There is some beautiful symmetry to that.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Growlers albums and if you’re paying attention you know which two. Of those “Chinese Fountain” is the best.

Ratings: 4 stars

Listening to “Chinese Fountain” it was easy to see why the Growlers have built an audience so loyal they sold out three straight nights in San Francisco.

It is refreshing when a band can draw on multiple musical influences and blend them into something new and powerful. The Growlers are a blend of echoing surfer guitar, eighties Goth music with a pinch of sixties doo wop and seventies disco thrown in for added flavour. Think Dick Dale crossed with the Cure and you’ll be close. The band’s followers call this “Beach Goth” and that’s as good a description as any.

Whatever you call it, “Chinese Fountain” is my favourite of their albums. On it, the Growlers manage to mix the ‘warm bath’ quality of surfer music with lilting melodies that add a nice swell and dip to the ride. You can take this album lying down, floating in the ambience, or you can catch the wave and aggressively ride the tune into shore. Either way, you’ll have a good time.

Singer Brooks Nielsen’s vocals have a bit of a 60s crooner quality, with a head voice that has a lot of natural resonance and verve. It feels skeevy and romantic in equal measure. The crooner elements are so pronounced that on “Rare Hearts” I had to check the liner notes to be sure it wasn’t a cover (n.b. – it wasn’t: all the tracks on “Chinese Fountain” are Growlers originals).

When the band gets their surf guitar going it is equally compelling. On “Going Gets Tough” the tone of Matt Taylor’s guitar is rich and relaxed. His playing is sublime; a combination of laid back seemingly-effortless groove with a restless energy lurking in the background. The tunes are well structured and give equal billing to everyone in the band, letting you focus in on bass, vocals, drums or guitar with equal ease, although you’ll want to give Taylor’s careless brilliance special attention.

Into this mix of updated surfer rock, “Chinese Fountain” throws in a dark romanticism that reminds you of the Cure. There is an ambient, echoing quality to the sound, with lyrics that are dark and heart-worn.

Then, when you think you’ve got their sound categorized in your mind, along comes the title track, which feels like Blondie in their disco phase, blending dance club beats and New Wave jump. This song is catchy as hell and ought to have been a hit in any sane world. Sadly, when it comes to hit making the world is far from sane. The song is a dystopian view of the music industry, a song that borrows what has come before, while acknowledging there is an inherent emptiness in that process:  

“We are the miners of another generation

Hills scraped dry with no choice but be creative

Everybody’s sick and tired of waiting

Couldn’t get any harder to be patient

Is techno so shitty even disco seems punk

Like the water so filthy it’s no wonder why we’re drunk.”

Rarely is hipsterism so self-aware of its own faults, and the clever recognition that they have made a disco beat dangerous, and wondering – at their own expense – if it was all worth it. When you make a song this good, all is forgiven. And to answer your question, Growlers, yes – techno is that shitty.

What isn’t shitty is “Chinese Fountain” which is an atmospheric groove-fest that shows that there is still gold in the hills around San Francisco, if you’re willing to apply new treatments to find it.

Best tracks: Big Toe, Black Memories, Chinese Fountain, Going Gets Tough, Love Test, Not the Man