Local
Grooves
Bart
Davenport
Game Preserve (Antenna Farm)
East Bay singer-songwriter Bart Davenport's second solo album, Game Preserve, is more The Village Green Preservation Society than Busch Gardens serenade. And thank the Lion King, because all the frontin', frettin' angular noise rock and gangbanging beats get tiring when you just want to curl up on a wet winter day with a nice bossanova number and a good book. Songs like the opening track, "Sweetest Game," are just the thing for those Folger's moments. The former Kinetics and Loved Ones vocalist takes it easy like that, showing he's game for sensitive, Latin-inflected songcraft as well as Eagles-like country rock, balmy '60s-ish orchestrations, and even some Thin Lizzy-style strut. No restrictions here – no warden, he.
Game Preserve is full of such unguarded snatches of pop bliss, bald-faced,
tender, and delivered winningly by Davenport and guests like the Moore
Brothers and Nedelle. "Some might say I'm a sucka and some might
say I'm a hack / I stand proud to be your lover even when you don't
love back / I'm not embarrassed by your beauty so why should you be,"
Davenport, ever the hopeless romantic, coos against a curtain of rhythm
guitars and trumpets on "The Saviors." Even lines like "All
aboard the choo-choo / You know that it behooves you" ("Bar
Code Trees") can't kill the benevolent buzz. Bart Davenport
plays a CD-release show Wed/10, Hemlock Tavern, S.F. (415) 923-0923.
He also performs at the East Bay Holiday Show, Dec. 20, Oakland Metro,
Oakl. (510) 763-1146. (Kimberly Chun)
Oranger
Shutdown the
Sun/From the Ashes of Electric Blues (Jackpine Social Club)
Oranger have been languishing on the borderlines of indie pop for too long – far from the madding noise and always closer to the sweet harmonies of the past. That's not to say there's a dearth of hard stuff in Oranger's orbit: the band acquit themselves on Shutdown the Sun with the fierce, sugar-high abandon of a post-Beatles Paul or George on the title track, going down fast with plenty of "whoooa-ooh-ooh" 's and a descending melody line. Vocalist-guitarist Mike Drake and bassist-vocalist Matt Harris bring out the big guns – doubled-up vocals and inexorable power chords – for "Bluest Glass Eye Sea." At this point we should be putty in the hands of the foursome, so why haven't we fallen for the sinewy guitar of "Tree Bent Gun"? Maybe it's not the time or place for rock candy. Maybe these days we take our pop dark – hold the cubes and cream. Still, considering both Shutdown and From the Ashes of Electric Blues, a second disc of rare and unreleased songs that veer from jazz fusion ("Gorilla in a Rucksack") to cha-cha ("Butterfly Magician"), the band seem to be popping the pieces together just fine – zeitgeist be damned. Oranger might keep talking about turning off everyone's favorite hot, glowing orb, but they aren't burned out yet. Oranger perform at the Jackpine Social Club Holiday Party, Thurs/11, Parkside, S.F. (415) 503-0393. (Chun)
