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  Always the Quiet Ones (2006) REVIEWS |
ZAPRUDER POINT HAVING LOGGED IN A GOOD HALF-DECADE singing with fierce indie pop-smiths The Boy Wonder Jinx, Dan Phillips bid adieu to North Carolina in 1999 and, 4-track in tow, decided to try Chicago on for size. He paid his dues at open mics and coffee shop gigs, but spent most of his days furthering the adventures in home recording he’d started back in Raleigh. Eventually, two years’ worth of wide-eyed North Coast odes were committed to a double-disc set called Zapruder Point’s Low Resolution. The album was praised in the Chicago Sun-Times, and Dan’s live profile also rose as he began frequenting Schuba’s stage as part of the club’s popular "Hoot Night" series. In 2002, disenchanted with the "sad bastard" vibe dominating his solo work, Dan taught some of his material to a couple of good friends: violinist Casey Millard and her husband, Tom (drummer with the erstwhile Feelies tribute band The Boys With the Perpetual Nervousness and local improv group The Dirty Rugs). The trio jelled just as well musically as they had socially, and in the Spring of 2003, they released Spirit of 91, the first "full-band" platter to bear the Zapruder Point moniker. In its wake, the band experimented as a live act, combining hyper electric arrangements with more subdued takes. Now, years later, the glorious and varied mix of It’s Always the Quiet Ones emerges.  Alternately channeling the high-caliber songcraft of Paul Simon and the lo-fi enthusiasm of Robert Pollard, It’s Always the Quiet Ones catalogs ZP’s plaintive songs of lost friends and lovers ("For Greg #3," "Johnny without June"), peppy and funny jangles about long-distance exes and rebellious kids ("Jodi’s Fine," "The Idea of Having Children"), and rueful tales of hangovers and disillusionment ("Ghosts of 98," "Good as Gold"). Behind these personal histories loom the specters of terrorism, high school shootings, and cold technology (all of our cell phones, computer screens, and TVs) that make us nostalgic for familiar barstools in clubs where "the line snakes out the door / for the world’s greatest band." Ultimately, the easy charm and exuberance of Quiet Ones offers comfort in spite of these modern anxieties. The record is refreshing in its unpolished intimacy: we hear every scrape of the strings, creak of the drum stool, and trademark tape hiss. Renowned music writer glenn mcdonald (The War Against Silence) notes, "In music it is possible, as Zapruder Point does, to realize that the sketch captures the mood better than the finished painting ever would." Such a convincing and passionate instrument is Phillips’s voice, met with bone-dry vocal harmonies against a rotating cast of instruments acoustic and electric. Dan sings, "We’re not famous / and we will never be. No matter, given the success enjoyed by friends in basements making such vital and infectious music. A raggedly heartfelt triumph, with no pretense to image or fame, It’s Always the Quiet Ones openly invites us to lean in for the whispers and join in on the shouts. LISTEN ORDER ZAPRUDER POINT WEBSITE ZAPRUDER POINT MYSPACE |
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