Dying Californian - s/t EP
(Turn)
The Dying Californian consists of Ricardo Reano, Simon Fabela, Nathan Dalton, and Andrew Dalton, formerly known as Zum and Troubleman recording artists Nuzzle. Though I haven't heard much Nuzzle, I hear their earlier work trod close to the classic Troubleman aesthetic of chaotic hardcore, and if that's where it ended, Dying Californian would be a departure as radical as that of Ned Flanders when his newly rebuilt house fell down and he had himself committed. This self-titled EP finds the group exploring their country side, something that reared its head on the last Nuzzle full-length, San Lorenzo's Blues. I'm fully against the idea that moving from hardcore to country is "maturing," and The Dying Californian's move to prettier melodies and harmonized vocals screams of the disillusion and reformation that mark many a musician's mid-life crisis. Nuzzle's version of a red Corvette and buxom blonde mistress clocks in at just under twenty-five minutes, and, though the opening track, "On the Lam," is just the country & western that's expected, almost immediately, The Dying Californian dive into more accessible waters; "Springtime is for Suckers," the second track, is a plaintive indie ballad with nearly no twang, and even when the acoustic guitars come back out on "Celestial Glow," the EP never returns to the stripped-down country sound that, by the twenty-fifth minute, is sorely missed. The majority of The Dying Californian's debut consists of pretty songs that leave behind what seems to be their biggest strength, the understatement that makes the soulful "On the Lam" the EP's best moment. From there on, instrumentation becomes more lush, vocals more jagged, emotions more overtly exclaimed, and what legitimate claim The Dying Californian may have had as a band who successfully mixes their rock influence with country fixin's is left awash in a tepid pool of pedestrian, unremarkable rock balladry.
|
