Local
Grooves
The
Cushion Theory
The Cushion Theory
(Foodstamp)
These days, when it seems like everyone and their mom has some sort
of gimmick to draw attention to their songs and send them straight to
the top, it's kind of refreshing to see that the members of the Cushion
Theory have decided to make music the old-fashioned way. After almost
three years of polishing their live act around Bay Area venues, they've
finally decided to settle down and record an album. The Cushion Theory's
self-titled debut doesn't attempt any musical revolutions in terms of
song structure and doesn't resort to any digitized tricks; instead it
relies on straightforward, solid rock.
Often caught straddling the fence between harder-edge emo and a '70s-retro
sound, brothers Jordan and Justin Griggs, who front the band, draw a
good deal of inspiration from the last decade's heyday of guitar-based
indie bands. Some songs, like "Get Close" are reminiscent
of mid-'90s Chicago emo groups such as Braid, or perhaps more rocking
bands like Built to Spill. Other tracks, like "Never Get a Chance,"
find the band reveling in Stones-influenced old-school good-time rock
'n' roll. In the end the Cushion Theory is what it is: a reliable analog
rock band that provides no surprises – just lots of tightly orchestrated
guitar, bass, drums, and vocals on a working man's album made for those
looking to take a break from today's laptop and drum machine world.
The Cushion Theory plays Fri/30, Blakes, Berk. (510) 848-0886. June
14, Pound-S.F., S.F. (415) 826-9202. (Martin Przybyla)
Danny Caron
Good Hands
(Danny Caron Records)
Like such guitar masters as Johnny Moore, Billy Butler, and Eric Gale,
Danny Caron walks the fine line between blues and jazz with uncanny
command. The Oakland picker found a like-minded cohort in Charles Brown
and, in the early 1990s, masterminded the fallen blues superstar's resurgence.
Brown, who died in 1999, turns up on the guitarist's debut CD, Good
Hands, singing and playing piano with support from just Caron and
bassist Ruth Davies on a couple of ballads that exceed the intimacy
of many of Brown's celebrated comeback recordings. The remaining nine
tunes were cut more recently and feature Caron in instrumental combo
settings with either organist Jim Pugh or pianist John R. Burr providing
the harmonic underpinning. Caron originals mingle with material associated
with Billy Butler, Gatemouth Brown, Brook Benton, and Duke Ellington,
and Caron's fingers slice the melodies like a warm knife through sweet
butter, his thoughtfully sculpted lines matching the assertive grit
of the blues tradition with the grace and fluidity of a true jazz improviser.
Soul jazz doesn't get much better – or bluer – than this.
Danny Caron plays Fri/30, Downtown, Berk. (510) 649-3810. (Lee
Hildebrand)
