Posted on: January 25, 2010 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

Garrison is the type of band that can actually repeat the same 4 words over and over and make it into a three-minute long song – and have it work. While the guitar lines are relatively straight-forward and uninspired, the vocals by Joseph Grillo are clean and soothing on the eardrums. Joseph’s method of vocal delivery is along the lines of early-nineties Soul Asylum (think Can’t Even Tell, off the Clerks soundtrack) and the All-American Rejects. Fortunately, Garrison is another band that is fronting the dual-harmony movement in alternative music, really using two vocalists to their advantage, in “Everything You Want”. “We Know Our Demographic” has Offspring-style guitars, and it details the story of a movie/television director from two different viewpoints. Knowing their demographic, the director keeps “the kickback coming”, keeps “the camera running”, while everyone else is praying for a way out, “praying for your suicide”.

Rapidly moving from poppy-punk styled music to experimental rock, Garrison is not the type of band that wishes to pigeonhole itself for the entirety of their career. “The Closer” is fed by the distortion of the lead guitars, swirling ever more out of control. Much more harder than the tracks that lead up to it, “The Closer” provides the ultimate evidence for the malleability of the act. The only negative thing that I could possibly say about Garrison is that their most-approachable song, “Everything You Want”, can only be one of two possible things. Perhaps it is one of many directions that Garrison wishes to go with their music, or it is simply a track to possibly throw on the radio. The only reason that I even mention it is the fact that it is in such stark contrast to the rest of the disc.

Regardless of method or mode, Garrison makes a disc that has high replay value. Nothing is rehashed time and time again on this disc, and each track has Garrison approach the lyrics and music in a different way. Garrison, in their The Silhouette CDep, makes clear each and every band that has ever had an influence on them, most damnedly during “God is Not On Our Side” with the backing “On and On” – a blatant nod to Nirvana.

Top Tracks : Everything You Want, The Closer

Garrison – The Silhouette EP / 5 Tracks / 2003 Revelation Records / http://www.garrison-kills.com / http://www.revelationrecords.com / Reviewed 28 July 2003 / Released 22 July 2003

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