Let's Active
Big Plans For Everybody
I.R.S.
This is one hell of a rock 'n' roll album. It's as crazy-quilt fascinating as it's predecessor, Cypress, yet it's also firmer and more immediately accessible and need not have "quirky" or "eccentric" appended to it in discussion. Uh-oh, I feel a Millsrave coming on so if you ain't in the mood, fuck off.
From the opening track "In Little Ways" (pure timeless pop if there ever was, and the slated first single--with two non-LP B-sides--in England, I hear) to album closer "Route '67" (mimic- Page instructional slide instrumental over a jet-fueled rockabilly thump), Big Plans For Everybody traverses a multi-decadal spectrum and forges a sound that is both instrumentally grandiose and emotionally compelling, literally laughing in the face of 90% of the sterile radio poop coming out of the big New York and LA studios. "How can this guy sit in his dinky little home-made studio in, what's that place, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, tobacco town, and do by himself what we have ten guys for in our studio?" the head of Bigdick Records muses.
As before, Mitch Easter is a plethora of influences and stylistic borrowings; ask him about The Move, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Beach Boys, Big Star, XTC, Kraftwerk, Dwight Twilley or Peter Holsapple and you're likely to get a big thumbs up. The new record contains various references and and sneaky lifts that you'll be jerking your head around and replaying sections and mentally flipping through your album collection. Rather than an influence-spotter's wet dream, however, BPFE stands solidly as a unique (and, I predict, an enduring) testimony to rock's multilayered mosaic, a brand new birthing that can proudly stand up and shout, "I'm what a little talent and a lot of cool music can father!"
Yeah, this is a "really cool" album, as Mitch might put it.
Produced and mixed by Mitch himself (assistance on three cuts by Scott Litt) and virtually performed by Mitch, BPFE is an intensely personal statement. New Let's Active members Angie Carlson (guitar, keys) and Eric Marshall (drums, formally of hot Winston-Salem combo The Allisons) make appearances, as do Rob Ladd (drums, from The Pressure Boys) and Faye Hunter (bass; she will be missed). But Mitch has always made tapes as far back as early Stamey-Sneakers days, and if you have a studio and instruments and the ability to use 'em all, why not? So the album is not only a showcase for his guitar virtuosity (no other word for it), but a close look at his skills on bass, drums and keyboards as well. Vocals too, as he sings lead on all cuts; in the voice department he has indeed matured into a tough and convincing vocalist.
Instead of an omniscient dissection (*Ha!* mutters the reader) I'll * just sort of* share a few observations. I've only had the album for a week or so and it's the type of record that I'll savor over time, on a song to song basis, new pleasure and insights accruing steadily. I would like to point out that the somber cover portrait of Mitch sitting--huddled!--on an old wooden creekbridge seems significant. Time to make decisions, or just some communing...?
"In Little Ways" sounds lonely and confessional even amidst the most glorious Let's Active chordal cascades. In many ways this is a classic LA tune, full of the odd tonal shifts and biting guitar leads I've come to expect, yet it's also full of shadows and darkness, densely textural to the pointof overloading the hearing sense andoverflowing into vision, taste and smell. I confess to deep spinal chills everytime certain descending chords crash from the guitar/grand duet and Mitch sings, "When we look back we never see/How lines got crossed...I stand outside my room/Missing is so new." Similarly, "Badger" chronicles loss and loneliness, a lovely acoustic ballad marked by his vocal duet with himself and a mournful electric guitar that recalls two familiar songs, "Here Comes The Sun" and "Badge." (Hm...) "In winter I kinda' shut down/Ask me later we'll sort something out/Looking at you I think you untrue."
On the optimistic side, however: "Fell" is uptempo, buoyant, new love 'n' life. "I am the one for you...You fell from a cloud and I loved you/All I wanna do is ask you/Do you love me/ Yes, you do/You give me a hundred thousand reasons/ To tell you I do too... I had a dream that I saw you/I hope it goes on and on." A touch of the "new Southern pop," plenty of those sacred jangly guitars and some blistering Easter solos to boot. "Writing The Book Of Last Pages" is funny and bizarre as backward guitars and electric sitars twang down the paisley path while the Walrus heads off to Strawberry Fields. BIG drums, some French horns, lush Angie backing vox. And "Last Chance Town" crunches out dirtier than any Led Zep clone around; somewhere tonight Billy Gibbons is sweating in his boots 'cause he's heard that the ME six string is loaded and firin' bolts 'o lightnin'.
I guess my fave is "Whispered News," the hottest and punchiest Easter tune since "'65 Comet." Rob and Faye lay down a terse, insistent bottom while various guitars chatter anxiously, tension building through clever dynamics and the use of sustain in key spots. A vague paranoia creeps in lyrically; "You can't get close/ You can't cut through/Search the air/For whispered news." (Listen for how he hangs onto the word "news.") This is the oldest cut on the album, dating back to trio times. It has aged well and stands to become a real showstopper. Solid rock, these days, indeed.
There's something for everybody here, whether you're a musical archivist, aural-tapestry buff or just a fan of well-crafted rock 'n' roll. Grab your headphones and dance, or ride through the summer with windows down and speakers cranked. Make plans for Let's Active. Be nice, y'all.
Fred "Uncle" Mills
