Ekoostik Hookah
Seahorse
by Jess Minnen
koostik Hookah is a band that deserves to pass through the last layers of anonymity into the threshold of mainstream popularity. Let’s just hope they don’t. Success and fame seem to be kisses of death for most bands like Hookah, and in a genre whose fans can be as turncoat as hardcore punks, it is quite a task to skirt the line. Seahorse, the seventh release from the band on their independent label, Acoustic Recordings, is a fine example of what it can mean to be a jam band-a band that hinges on live performance, genre-mixing, and its loyal fan base.
It must be frustrating for Hookah, together since 1991, to try to forge their way among the recent incursion of jam bands. Seahorse should satisfy anyone’s doubts that the band has a unique sound on the scene. Their style is part southern rock, part classic rock, part blues, part bluegrass, and all jam. Their jams, on songs like the title track “Seahorse,” feel at once familiar and new.
They have a way of blending the elements one expects from a jam band without sounding like a copy or a substitute. You might hear Gov’t Mule in one song, some acid jazz in another, Phish in the next, or maybe the Allman Brothers. The brilliant thing is that you might even hear them all in the same song.
What can make jam bands great, and what can redeem this genre from the clutches of fad, is the ability to appeal to so many varied music tastes. Hookah is laden with this ability. Their lyrics make you stop and wish more people “let their spirits run completely wild” and think that “you would be wise to maybe try it for awhile.” For a band that resists classification as much as Ekoostik Hookah does, and for an album that is influenced by as many genres as Seahorse is, these lyrics resonate. One listen to the juxtaposition of a bluegrass-heavy song like “Silver Train” followed by the acid rock of “Find Out” is enough to prove that this band knows how to let it flow and give in to their multifarious inclinations. Their diversity is as much a blessing as a curse though, since many people like either bluegrass or funk, and aren’t too keen on a band with an album that is a kind of love child between Ohio bluegrass and Midwest funk.
For a taste-tester of jam bands, Seahorse might be a bit overwhelming, but seasoned pallets will most likely enjoy. The album is also a great place to start for anyone who’s never heard Ekoostik Hookah. And if you’ve been thinking of letting your spirit run completely wild, you might be wise to try Seahorse for awhile.
See Ekoostik Hookah at Cicero’s on Friday, March 1.
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O.A.R.
Risen
by Molly Sutter
With the mid-terms that we know and love approaching, it’s good to have some mellow music on hand. Luckily, O.A.R. (pronounced O..A..R, which stands for Of a Revolution) have just released a new album that will certainly satisfy musical tastes demanding simplicity, good humor, and mellowness.
O.A.R.’s only flaw is that their sound doesn’t quite distinguish itself from the oft-heard rock/reggae/ska mix, but the band is earnest enough to pull off a couple of very good and thought-provoking tunes, if not a whole album’s worth of them.
The band has cultivated an interesting sound, including horns and a Hammond organ-which serves them well in spicing up their otherwise run of the mill songwriting. Lead singer Marc Roberge’s voice (which sounds remarkably like Dicky Barrett of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones) perfectly expresses the simplistic emotionality of O.A.R.’s songs, which have a tendency to repeat themselves.
A perfect example would be the similar “I wasn’t going home tonight/I see we’re both crazy, that’s alright by me/The night was kind of hazy that’s the way it’s gonna be” from “Hey Girl” and “Everyone says that I’m wild/Pardon my French but I still know my child/And that was the day I told her I needed some time.” from “Untitled.” Some of the songs run a lot deeper, though, especially “King of the Thing” and “Here’s to You” which both explore how time passes and feelings change due to life experiences.
They hit their peak, though, with the catchy “Night Shift,” whose chorus “It’s three a.m. and I want to go to bed/I got a lady running through my head/Ran out of money looking for a night shift/It’s three a.m. and I want to go to bed” can’t help but stick in anybody’s head. When it’s three a.m., you’re sick of working, and want to go to bed, Risen is an album to play to mellow out and brighten up.
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