The Owls

The Owls - S/T - Jade Tree

Um, yeah, let me see here. How should I start this one? Well, let me just come right out and say it – I don’t think this is a very good record. Now, that that’s out of the way, I’ll get on with it.

The Owls are for all intents and purposes Cap’n Jazz. They are the original 4 members (pre-Davey von Bohlen) of that legendary band that released one of my very favorite albums of all time. I can still listen to that record over and over and find it refreshing.

All 4 members have gone on to do great things in the past 6 years or so, and now they have decided to collaborate again. Super group? Possibly. Big seller? You bet. Great music? Hardly.

This record contains 8 tracks of sub-parness. There are a couple of halfway decent songs on here, but only one or two, and if it was a different band with less well known, less respected guys, I probably wouldn’t think these few songs were decent, but just better than the rest of the songs on the record. These songs sound as if the band was rushed to put these songs together, get in there and record them (with legendary Steve Albini, no less), release em and then go on tour right away. These songs just aren’t put together very well, they don’t sound like they had enough time to work all of the kinks out of them. They sound like they could be good songs if they would have taken more time to develop them, and maybe even drop a couple of them, and write some different songs. 6 more months and this could have been a great record. Oh well, there’s always the coveted “sophomore effort.”

The record doesn’t sound like Cap’n Jazz, but rather a beefier version of TK’s previous band, Joan of Arc. Not really rock, but they can get into a little bit of a groove once in a while; much less ambient than Joan of Arc. There’s nothing wrong with rocking.

I saw the Owls recently when they came through town and I thought the live show was much better than the record. There’s a live energy that doesn’t come across on this record. I think they should have let the record set in a little bit longer before going on tour. Many of the people I talked to at the show had no idea who they were. I have hope for the Owls because I’ve known these guys to do so much better, so given a little time, I’m thinking things will get better.

Read a review of Ghosts and Vodka here.