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The Brother Kite
Waiting for the Time To Be Right
Clairecords
2006
www.thebrotherkite.com

With Waiting for the Time To Be Right, Providence, RI’s the Brother Kite creates narcoleptic beach music for urban indie kids. Shedding the frenetic lead riffs of surf rock, the album centers around a constant barrage of rhythm guitar that has been sculpted by the influence of poppy post-postpunkers like the Wedding Present – and more recently the Oranges Band (with whose The World and Everything In It this disc shares a suspiciously similar resemblance both in general sonic aesthetic and sun-dipped waterscape cover art). Beginning with the playful instrumental opener, “The Coat of Arms,” magnetic melodies and cascading guitar work create a solid collection of clothes-shedding, saltwater pop rock.

“Out Of Sight” is a soft ebbing undertow of vaguely psychedelic powerchords and a throbbing blend of lively tambourine and jingle bell stomp. The vocals are submerged within the mix, floating just under the surface until they majestically melt into the climactic guitar upsurge. “Hopeless and Unsung” vocally resembles Robert Pollard chipping away at Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson, while a vat of never-ending reverb sustains melancholic chords beyond the extension of fading memories. The Brian Wilson similarities reach a climax with “Lay Down Your Burden” (one of Wilson’s best solo cuts is 1998’s similarly titled “Lay Down Burden”), where Shins-style rock swirls into a harmonic canon of fuzz guitar.

The powerful pop eccentricities and escape-the-tedium storylines of four-four rockers “Get On, Me,” “Hold Me Down” and “Bringing It Back Home” provide the disc’s best cuts: pop gems of lost hours and jubilant melodies (especially on the Cure lite introductory riffs of “Get On, Me”).

With Waiting for the Time To Be Right, the Brother Kite catches a heavy nostalgia drift (indicated by the anachronistic inclusion of “Side One/Side Two” track list headings) that while tending to value skilled emulation over divergent innovation still yields a gorgeous soundtrack to sun-spangled beach days.

Favorite Track: Track 6, “Hold Me Down”

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Christopher j Ewing is a writer and filmmaker living in San Francisco with a girl and a designer dog (Chihuahua vs. dachshund). He is in a band by himself and has a myspace account (www.myspace.com/slapbraceletskill) and a production company (www.wastepot.com) for freelance film and crit/journo work.

 
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