Elevator Through - Vague Premonition

Punk Floyd

This is psychedelic rock with a punk ethos; call it Punk Floyd if you need labels (this being the only entry found under this particular banner). The music ranges from grunge punk flailings to hauntingly beautiful songs.

Ironically, the best song, An Early Raining April Morn, is the only one you can't sample here. It begins as a simple acoustic number with Rick White's delicately depressed vocal and opens into a musically spacy vista featuring Tara White's echo drenched harmony. Music doesn't get any better than this.

A cool warped synth drone pulls Foggy Sea along with a demented charm, and Comfortable But Almost and Cut of the Wick are quieter more acoustic numbers with a searching feel. The push pull of Tara White's cavernous vocalizing on Fluidmonogleestran takes the listener on another soaring trip. The Grip On Me is hung together with an organ, with a hint of The Doors "The End" The CD finishes with the hard edged title track Vague Premonition that features an unsettling militaristic march like theme in the first part that works up to a frenzied guitar thrashing climax.

Rick White is the driving creative force behind this trio and his vocal style is the antithesis of the angst snarl that has pervaded popular rock since Kurt Cobain and Alice in Chain's ushered it in (see Creed as current example). His soft vocal style is unexpected in the punk inspired bloodlettings, but it works to great effect on the space blues oriented material, and on the odd occasion can be tougher, sounding something like Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. When Tara's vocals are loosed against the darkened skies of some of the songscapes the contrast against Rick's voice produces something inspired.

Marc Gaudet's drumming has a real pulse for the music, with a fondness for ambitious rolling fills. The guitars and bass sometimes borrow bits of colour from the palette of some of Julian Cope's work. There's even a piece that is aural collage, like The Beatles' Revolution Number Nine, only far more compelling than that piece of ....

Musically, this is stellar stuff. Interstellar actually. Lyrically, though, what's being explored is inner space, and Rick White songs, like Tori Amos's, have a lexicon all their own. Like DNA, most of the words seem like junk, and the odd song or phrase seems to be coding for something meaningful. Yet, you just suspect that the junk DNA in the lyrics mean something too, and that each foray into this labyrinth of music will help tease out it's secrets, revealing itself in tantalizing dribs and drabs.

Some of the music is lo-fi, but many of Rick's visions are well realized here. The music takes a couple listens to begin to reveal itself, and then puts your mind in a vice grip long after that. This is a lot more than just garage rock, but it hasn't been polished to an undistinguished gleam like mainstream records. There are familiar bits throughout, but in the end this heady uncut jewel is their own fabulously idiosyncratic creation.... January 15, 2002

A Cut Above your Average Garage Band

It seems that we are running out of genuine garage rock bands nowadays. If you listen to East Coast rock radio (WNEW, WBCN, etc.) everyone still wants to be the next Alice in Chains, Blur, Perl Jam, or Nirvana. Not this strange looking band. They have some very powerful material, but their production quality in the studio and on the road is still very basic, which is refreshing. I saw them live in NYC with the Delusions and Built to Spill, and I have to say that Built to Spill was the weakest of the three bands. Elevator Through imptressed me a great deal. Get this album! June 16, 1999

the elevator

the elevator is coming to your town.. there's room enough for everyone. however, enlightened persons only, please. all others will undoubtedly be lost in the whirlwind of sound. April 14, 1999

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