Bright Light Fever Presents The Evening Owl CD

Rarely has a band been more inaccurately titled than Bright Light Fever. There's nothing bright or light about this California quartet, although there's definitely a feverish quality about the band's debut album, Bright Light Fever Presents...The Evening Owl. The set tosses and turns like a patient with a high temperature, sweating and shivering by turns, and when sleep comes, dreams loom and shatter in fitful starts. And so it is with the album, as jagged rhythms cut across the tracks, the band agitatedly convulses through genres, and the atmospheres thicken and darken. Slivers of jazz fray the edges of some songs, discordance infects many of their melodies and chord structures, and at times BLF seem to battle between their art punk and art rock tendencies. In the end, however, the group's strong melodies inevitably triumph. The war over genres, however, continues, with eclecticism eventually emerging, bloodied but victorious. Thus, the rousing melodic punk rock of "A Deeper Blue" rubs shoulders with the grimy blues of "Let's Stay In," as the jazz-flecked "Mother Mary Blues" confronts the stomping rock of "How Much Is That Gun?" and the emotive torch song "Crowded Street in May" vies with the art punk of "Broken Hands." There are many disquieting moments within this set, deliberately so, and heightened by the discomforting visages of life conjured up by the vivid lyrics. Regardless, virtually all the songs have a surprising infectiousness about them, shadowed though many are, with a few even pushing toward anthemic. And like twilight itself, there's a touch of gloam swirling around the sound, but a quickening as well, with a dark beauty surrounding it all. A sublime debut. ~ Jo-Ann Greene

Recording information: The Hanger, Sacramento, CA (03/2006-04/2006).

Personnel: Evan Anthony Ferro (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Matt Ferro (vocals, guitar); Robert Cheek (lap steel guitar); Robert Torres (drums).

Audio Mixer: Matt Bayles.