Word: basses
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...Mascis, bass player Mike Johnson and drummer George Berz benefit from a little musical diversity with trumpet and flute accompaniment, but on stage the three are alone with their amps (and, from their glazed expressions, one gathers that they're presumably alone somewhere inside their minds as well). On classics like "Repulsion" and "No Bones" the band needs only provide the right chords and mumble a few lyrics, and the crowd fills in the rest...
Buttercup plays in and around the Boston area and their label Orr Records is located downtown on Lincoln Street. The lineup is pretty straight forward. Jim Buni and Mike Leahy take care of vocal and guitar-playing duties, and share the singing with Colleen MacDonald, who also plays bass. Dan Lech provides the backbone of the band on drums. What distinguishes Buttercup from run-of-the-mill alternapoppers is Tim Obetz's slide guitar playing. The full-bodied twang he evokes from the instrument superbly compliments Buni and Leahy's guitar work, but Obetz often plays the melody. This gives...
...Buttercup, and the band never let the songs, none of which runs longer than three minutes and 45 seconds, escape their tight control. The band showcases a well-honed sense of melody, holding the accompaniment in check to let the vocals and lead guitar reign free. The drums, bass and rhythm guitar remain tasteful throughout, while the vocals and lead and slide guitars bear the burden of melody making...
...Seaside Weekend," a hard-driving and energetic pop rock ditty, displays the band's playful side. Right away the tune hooks the listener in, not wasting time with polite introductions. The tune starts with bass and drums grooving hard underneath an enchanting slide guitar melody, injecting the tune with a longing sadness. The rest of "Seaside Weekend" seems like an exercise in controlled anger: beneath the carefree melody the chords are dark and help convey the sad regret implicit in the lyrics. The verse is restrained and Buni's vocals do most of the work. But at the chorus...
...That Easy frustrates the G. Love fan who has been acclimated to the loose, raw groove of his earlier work. Listen to the intro of the first single, "Stepping Stones": acoustic guitar chords ring out (good), followed by spacey-sounding slide (not so good), then the upright bass enters the picture (very good), followed by background singers crooning "na na" (what the...?). The rest of the album is maddeningly uneven in the same way. Catchy, funky numbers are buffered by colorless, inarticulate rants. Promising compositions are deprived of vitality by slick production and extraneous instruments and vocals...