THE JET AGE "Breathless" Sonic Boomerang THE FAKE ACCENTS "The Big Disconnect" Shady Grarr
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SINCE RETOOLING THE Hurricane Lamps as the Jet Age, Eric Tischler seems to have spent more time intensifying his guitar attack than expanding his songwriting. The local trio's "Breathless" opens with a gentle strum, but after 15 seconds, Tischler stomps on a pedal and the universe fills with dirty sound. It's enough to suggest that the guitarist, who doesn't sound very jingle-jangle on this album, has taken to heart Roger McGuinn's Byrds-era claim to have devised a jet-age sound.
"Breathless" is not simply a collection of vamps, riffs and blares. There are tunes and lyrics here, and they hold their own. Only one of the 10 tracks, the eight-minute "Big Deaths, Little Deaths," exists primarily as a showcase for the band's careening, muscular style. Yet even such shapely numbers as "Denny and Michelle" are punctuated by squalling guitar, and the band's philosophy is encapsulated by such titles as "Ride On." When Tischler sings, "The way you drive, I dunno /It's like you come alive," he could be talking to himself.
In a liner note they may never live down, the Fake Accents acknowledge that their material is "mostly ripped off of other songs." In fact, the local quartet is no more guilty of that than most fledgling rock combos, but the sound of its "The Big Disconnect" is indeed rather familiar: The Velvet Underground, early Television, the Fall and any late-'80s New Zealand band of your choice pretty much covers it.
There's no shame in emulating any of those precursors, however, and within their limited sphere of influences the Accents mix things up nicely. They have three singers -- Zack Richardson, Mai Nguyen and David Malitz (the last a washingtonpost.com employee) -- and a pop-obsessive viewpoint that should tickle other pop obsessives: Richardson's idea of a put-down is "Baby you're so obscure / Like a Japanese B-side." Such references are themselves a little obscure, but this band clearly isn't built for mass appeal. The Fake Accents are motivated by passion for cultish noisy-guitar rock, and that feeling is real enough.
-- Mark Jenkins
Appearing Thursday at the Black Cat.
