Abe Vigoda “Reviver” Review
Usually when artists like Abe Vigoda put a band like Fleetwood Mac in their “influences” section on their MySpace page, I assume they are making an attempt to be ironic. This made the fact that the band’s, who cut their teeth at the seminal LA all ages club The Smell with other off kilter punk bands like No Age and Mika Miko, decision to cover the Stevie Nicks led song “Wild Heart” seem even more surprising (does that mean we should expect 311 and NIN covers too since they are on the same list?!). “Wild Heart” is one of five new songs on their upcoming Reviver EP which will be hitting stores February 17. While the rest of the disc isn’t all ’70s AOR cover songs, it still has some sharper production and slightly more congruent songs than the spastic, tropical flavored freak outs that littered their excellent Skeleton album from last year. While I am sure some fans will be disappointed with the cover song and the slightly less fractured song structures, the EP is still very good and shows a band willing to take some chances, even if it means that they are making their sound a little more accessible.
I really like the sound they’re going for on this EP. I liked Skeleton, but this feels a little more concentrated and interesting. Promise to keep me informed if any 311 covers come down the pipe.
actually “wild heart” isn’t a fleetwood mac song-its a solo stevie nicks song(google anyone?)…anyways-fleetwood mac while being totally commercial actually feature guitar parts not to different from the ringing, picked parts that AV is soooo good at. i guess i can actually imagine these guys would have gleaned some of their stylings from such disparate sources as fleetwood mac or other un-trendy bands that don’t fit into your “COOL” spectrum. whatever-sometimes i just get tired of lazy reviewing…
btw-if you can’t tell i have great respect for both bands…
While it could be argued that Josh didn’t actually say “Wild Heart” was a Fleetwood Mac song, the comment here is cheekier than anything he says in reference to the hallowed Nicks.
Because he doesn’t have the same interest in the band that you do (maybe he does?) doesn’t make his taste any worse than yours.
My word’s are fairly worthless here though, because Fleetwood Mac aren’t in “cool spectrum”… or my “tolerable music spectrum.” Lindsay Buckingham has some cool solo stuff, but as a group I think they were shit.
I’ll try to avoid a cyber argument here, but a few points.
1.Never claimed it was Fleetwood Mac. They have FM listed on their Myspace, but the song was by Nicks, so I believe that was the confusion.
2.I like Fleetwood Mac quite a bit and a lot of other “uncool” bands..believe me, I have spent large sums of money on records and concerts of bands that these people you despise so much consider “uncool” (although Stevie Nicks solo stuff never did much for me)
3.You could make a really valid argument about my laziness, although I don’t think this was a good one.