Word: bunis
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...signed the Damascus Declaration, calling for a democratic constitution that would push Assad's regime out of power. The secret police broke up a press conference called by three activists but refrained from arresting anyone. Sipping a beer in a Damascus café afterward, one of the signers, Akram al-Buni, warned that the next step would be a call for street protests and civil disobedience. "The regime is encircled and weak," he says...
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...
...strange thing about Buttercup is that this kitschy pop works. Buni conveys genuine pathos on "A Fire" despite the banality of the song's form. Blotches like "A Fire" aside, Buttercup writes strikingly original and effective pop tunes. Though at times they seem like a post-pubescent version of Hanson, the maturity of most tunes confounds any attempt to categorize them simply as pop. Surging underneath the glittery surface of these tunes is a seriously reflective look at friendship, regret and love. "I Got Friends" examines the pain associated with losing contact with old friends, but in the end hope...
...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, the distortion comes on and the drums become more aggressive as MacDonald and Buni skillfully harmonize...
...lead voice is sometimes a bit nasally, but only enhances the endearing pop cheesiness that occasionally oozes through. The pop-lite style gives Love an ironic twist, especially in some of the more cynical tunes. Singing in a teeny-bop voice, Buni reflects on the complexity and bitterness of many of his relationships. The sugary tunes do become saccharine sometimes, as if they were a parody of pop history from the Byrds to R.E.M. After a while, the constant tambourine shaking and acoustic guitar strumming become grating. "A Fire," for example, relies heavily on pop love song conventions--the chorus...
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