Your reviewer must confess total prior ignorance of THE CAPITOL YEARS. Their press release comes bearing exciting tales of handpicked supports with Pixies and Daniel Johnston (with whom they also toured as his backing group), but it had all bypassed these ears until now.
Fortunately, it's hard to forget a band with a frontman called Shai, Son Of Eli, especially when his band are actually pretty damn good at bringing their dreamy, reverb-heavy pop to such enjoyably harmonic fruition.
'Revolutions' is a taster for their new album 'Dance Away The Terror', and its' B-side is the even more pointedly-titled 'CIA'. However, if you're expecting them to come on like a 21st Century amalgam of The Clash and Woody Guthrie, then forget it right now. If there is a political message (and there could be) it's shrouded in swathes of echo and loaded FX. References to change, terrorism and the recession crop up, but overall it's more of a feeling of discontent than anything concrete and TCY seem more intent in winning you over to their languid sonic cause rather than stealing the local council's shovels and bulldozers and starting a riot downtown.
Not that this is necessarily such a bad thing, if the two songs here are anything to go by. 'Revolutions' certainly enjoys throwing a few curveballs, with its' droney, Duane Eddy-meets-Spacemen 3 intro before it slaps you across the chops (gently) with its' ethereal harmonies and sunny Californian bearing. Quite a result in itself, bearing in mind the band hail from Philadelphia.
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B-side 'CIA' ain't half bad neither. It's in the same ballpark as 'Revolutions' with its' ethereal harmonies and layered guitars, but it has a few nice shifts of tempo akin to early Neil Young and seems nicely sure of itself. Sure, its' catchline (“Rock is dead!”) is as cliched as they come and probably still a fallacy despite the regurgitating pop continues to force itself through, but the spirit and feeling's there. Both remain good things, even in these uncertain times.
The Capitol Years, then, are surely in contention. I bet their version of Daniel Johnston's 'Casper The Friendly Ghost' kicks more ass though.
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