Pyewacket: 1967

Pyewacket may well sound like some grizzled old prog outfit, but the clue to where this (now) one man band come from is in the album title 1967. That year was when the demos that make up the basis of this set of rerecording's was initially put together by a band who had the talent, but (as expected!) never got the breaks. John McKindle, who in the original line up of the band played guitars and sang, as well as "providing songs" decided in December of last year to set about laying down new versions of the songs that the band had demoed in '67 mainly down to the fact that the original tapes were beyond repair. The band broke up in 1969 once lead vocalist Shannon Myhill and bassist Steve Simone Norstrom hooked up and while Shannon may be McKindle's sister, the explanation of how the band ended suggests that this occurrence may well still rankle with him as he states "It was going pretty well until Steve and Shannon became a thing, and the thing was with child."

Staying true to the original vibe of the era, what you get here is a set of songs that is heavily inspired by the Beatles, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the knock about melodies of The Monkees. Oddly therein lies both the pleasures and pitfalls of 1967, on the up side the songs are upbeat, containing some great harmony vocals and an authentic twangy guitar sound, however when the comparison for the music are to bands that were/are iconic, then you have to go some to really make the songs stand out and in truth nearly all of this album falls slightly short in that department. In rerecording these songs McKindle has moved from what was a five piece outfit back in '67 to handling all the instruments and vocals himself. In some ways that may actually go part of the way to explaining why that while the songs themselves are sound in terms of writing, they just feel a little flat and lacking in any real spark. The reliance on a drum machine for music from an era before they were invented also sounds slightly strange and stilted, going further to blunt the impact of catchy, if familiar ideas.

McKindle has an effective and authentic sixties voice, along with the ability to build it into layers of interesting harmonies and his simple guitar style is straight to the point and hugely enjoyable and considering that these were initially demos for a future album, the results are more than acceptable. However even as someone who enjoys going back to music from this era, I'm not sure how often I would opt to listen to Pyewacket over their contemporaries, although if you are an aficionado of this style and genre then there is much of interest here.

Track Listing
1. Together
2. I Thought
3. Tears For A Shadow
4. Love For Love
5. And If I Do
6. I Am The Sky
7. I Can't Know Why
8. If I Really Cared To
9. Torn Paper Tom
10. The 8th Moon
11. Reflections In Crystal Springs
12. Today, Tomorrow & Always
13. Why Me
14. The Journey Is Over Now
15. You Were On My Mind

Added: April 17th 2011
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: ItsAboutMusic.com
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Language: english

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