This offbeat album takes its title from the Forestiere Gardens in Fresco , a 10 acre labyrinth of caverns, grottos and subterranean tunnels which encircle the underground home of a Sicilian immigrant named Baldassare Forestiere,
The gardens were hand built in the early 1900s as a way of escaping the sweltering Californian heat and still exist today although apparently most locals are unaware of the fact. This is partly because from the outside it just looks like waste land.
This gardens are chosen by Blake Jones and his band as a metaphor for their place in the local music scene of Fresco, since in both "the magic happens underground".
Perhaps they were also drawn to what the Forestiere historical centre's website describe as an "oasis of a by-gone era" since the 15 tracks on this album have little connection with current music trends. "Who cares what's fashionable", Blake sings defiantly on Send The Band To Liverpool.
Blake Jones and his four man backing band, The Trike Shop, describe themselves as a "quirky avant-pop band". Jones writes all the songs and sings and plays a range of instruments including the guitar and theremin. His songs have strong melodies but he seems to go out of his way to avoid being overtly commercial or formulaic. "I wanna hear something that's not pre-programmed" , he sings on Out & Free & Faraway.
Everybody's Got An Andy Story remembers madness at early punk shows but
the 'by-gone era' the album chiefly references is the sixties. The album is like a collection of show tunes from an amateur musical on the theme of whatever happened to the dream of peace, love and understanding.
|
Sing Along and Sun Up are very Beatlesque, the first imagining an ideal world where you "strum and smile and get the girl", the second includes the affirmation "we want our lives to blaze".
Maybe it's a culture thing but I don't feel remotely on the same wavelength as this band. Perhaps my European ears are simply not attuned to their sense of irony. A track like Fighting The Big Dumb Noise with a cheesy pa-pa-pa-pa backing chorus suggests that the battle they are fighting is a losing one. Similarly, if there is a punch-line in Christmas Sale ("how did God survive before us?") I missed it.
Baldassare Forestiere worked on his folly for 40 years, The Underground Garden album took significantly less time to make. Both are labours of love and neither were remotely driven by dreams of fame or fortune. Still, as Steve Albini once said, underground music is like figure skating or fly fishing - .you're not necessarily going to make a living out of it but it's enjoyable for its own sake.
Band website
Official site of the Forestiere Underground Gardens
|
