Word: guitar
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...most apparent balance was between synthetic and organic. On one end of the stage stood Nicolas Godin, alone with his acoustic guitar. On the other stood Dunckel, ensconced in a veritable cocoon of keyboards and synthesizers...
...careers in listening have always run parallel to one another. After graduating from SUNY Binghamton with a joint degree in philosophy and psychology, he built furniture while serving in a New York hospital’s psychiatric ward. A chance encounter with a 70-year-old luthier (guitar maker) in rural Maine inspired him to begin his first apprenticeship crafting violins. In 1988, he opened his own shop in Cambridge and began studying part-time to become a psychologist, graduating from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology in 1998. “Violinmaking holds up the angst of working...
Which leads to the defining question about Ben Kweller. What has he got that all the other guitar-toting guys don't? Most obviously, Kweller has a tale of woe. In 1996, when he was just 15, his garage band, Radish, was signed by Nirvana guru Danny Goldberg to a major-label deal and was subsequently profiled at Proustian length in the New Yorker. The album that came out of the experience, Restraining Bolt, wasn't bad, but Kweller could not have marshaled more jealous cultural forces against him had he been handed a MacArthur genius grant at graduation. There...
...Johns. On My Way is barely electric, but Johns (whose father Glyn was a pioneer in intimate recording techniques and one of the early producers on Let It Be) finds a way to make it rock at every opportunity. For now, Kweller is still just a guy with a guitar. But he's aging quite well. --By Josh Tyrangiel
Beggar Boys does have its pop moments. The leadoff track, “Never Believe,” is a riveting opener that belies the monotony that follows. Driving synth opens the album, and quickly gives way to peppy jangling guitar. Only slightly dampened by Andy Rieger’s nasal, expressionless voice, the song is a pleasant chunk of modern folky pop. But after ten more songs of the same, one questions how much of this sound one can take...