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  Static Songs (2007) LYRICS REVIEWS  Where Have You Been (2004) LYRICS REVIEWS  Hook Boy (2001) LYRICS REVIEWS |
MIKE UVA MIKE UVA runs the day-to-day operations at the Collectible Escalators offices. Every few years he also manages to write and record an album's worth of strange and enticing songs. Against a detailed and varied sonic backdrop -- intricate electric and folk-guitar figures, slinky bass lines, fuzz-keyboard bursts, tape loops, and electric piano cascades – Uva casts a lyrical spell of surprising melodic invention: haunting tales of loneliness, odes to household objects, cowboy-chord reworkings of Elizabethan song, and comic meditations on the weird and beautiful. Mike Uva's 2004 release Where Have You Been was created almost entirely on a cassette PortaStudio. He used a 1/2-inch tape machine to bring somewhat higher fidelity to his next project, Static Songs, a mix of old favorites and newer tunes arranged with his band Hook Boy. In 2005, the band convened in pianist Chris Frohring's basement studio to record “Magic Marker,” “Hook Boy,” “Like Water You Press,” and “Reunion,” all of which had first seen light on a CD-R solo release (now out-of-print). The band had put a distinctive stamp on these songs at shows in recent years, and new recorded versions were in order. The sessions also produced new tracks: tales of brawling nuns (“Butterfly and Bee”), lovable paranoiacs (“My Manifesto”), anxious lovers (“Flip me Over !”), and late-night desolation (“Starlight” and its finger-picked companion “Para Guitarra”). The album achieves a remarkable range of moods and styles. Of note are Frohring's restrained, lyrical electric-piano solos, which lend Static Songs a classic 1970s flavor and jazz undertones. Uva and his colorful narrators mix autobiography with elements of satire, allegory, even nursery-rhyme, to mesmerizing affect. These are songs about control, escapism, violence, dis-connectedness, dark dreams, and sexy dancing. 
Fleshing out the bedroom vibe of Uva's home-recorded work, Hook Boy’s subdued sound has drawn comparisons to The Band and also to "a plush carpeted dream." Hook Boy has appeared with such artists as Cat Power, The Decemberists, Nina Nastasia, Trailer Bride, Lilys, Clem Snide, Brian Straw, April March, and Man Man. Mike Uva appears on the debut record from SleepyKid (Get Hip Records) and also played guitar for some years with Cleveland's favorite pop sensation Machine Go Boom. "A minor masterpiece." (read more . . .) LISTEN ORDER MIKE UVA MYSPACE |
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