Splitsville

While off-line for the past week or so, I've spent a lot of time listening to music. The ususal jazz vocalists and instrumentalists, i.e. Lee Wiley, Bill Evans, et al. Also, I made a big haul of $3.00 rock Japan CDs at my local Nippop import shop, Bookoff. One especially intrigued me because of the info on the obi strip, which described the album, Pet Soul by the group Splitsville, as a tribute to both the Beach Boys and the Beatles. "Pet" as in Pet Sounds, "Soul" as in Rubber Soul. . . .get it? Three bucks! How bad could it be? The answer: not bad at all! Literate lyrics and nice mix of odd instruments: accordion, Rickenbacker, marimba, congas, baritone sax, and drums, bass, guitar. Some of the songs are based on the chord changes from "Sounds" and "Rubber." Tracks include: "The Love Songs of B. Douglas Wilson" and "Caroline Knows." Final cut is an odd man out: a clever reworking of Bacharach and David's "I'll Never Fall Again," that vacillates between a more-or-less traditional take on the song, and a handful of other harder rocking stylistic approaches.

Take a listen to one of the tracks (link for a limited time only), "Forever" and let me know what you think. Knowing what I know now, I would even spring for the $16 and some change that they're asking for it at amazon.com .

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