Theselah - No Sleep, More Fun
(KOA)
The name Theselah sounds a lot like "Tesla," and I think that's the
biggest reason why it's hard to like this CD.
You see, Theselah seem to think they are Tesla. Sure, the band
starts their second album, No Sleep, More Fun, with two interesting,
quiet songs. "Nothing Special" is an airy shoegazer pop song
with the low, semi-spoken vocals carrying the melody against a
simple beat. Backup vocalists both provide a counter melody
of doodoodoos and add atmosphere through breathy, drawn out phrases.
As this song relies almost entirely on vocals, except for a couple
swells of interesting guitar, the next song is entirely instrumental,
a space-scape with the lead guitar playing a meditative progression
as the second guitar produces waves of feedback. These two songs
are a nice start to the album, but afterwards, Theselah goes
totally Tesla.
And the problem with going Tesla is that, once you start to play
loud, it becomes more (painfully) obvious how few chords you use
and how simple your songs are. Frank Hannon of Tesla knew that
to play hard you had to play a lot of notes, anyone whose seen
his double neck guitar in any of the band's videos knows this.
Theselah don't have the experience to fully explore one neck's
tuning, and the simplicity of their louder songs make them dull
and tedious. The third song, "Bad-Ass HiFi," is a bunch of
heavy metal riffing that doesn't go anywhere. "Anthem of K.O.A"
is chunkier and punker, but ultimately just as boring.
Theselah very much seems like a group of friends fooling around
with music who decided why not release the music they were making,
warts and all. And there ain't nothing wrong with that.
There are definitely signs that they could make
a decent album of bedroom psychedelia, like Monroe Mustang or
even as pop as Fuck. However, on this album, they simply try
to show off too much, and they don't yet have that much to show
off.
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