Dead at Recess
Boywonder
HEALYdisc
1997
11 tracks
At first listen, or if one does not listen too closely, the Ottawa band Boywonder does not sound much different than a dozen other rock bands the past few years have spawned. The sound is big but mellow, geared toward the filmic rhythms of rock video, and probably not terribly scary to anyone's parents. Behind this seductive facade is something more subtle and perhaps even subversive.
Boywonder's newest CD release, Dead at Recess, is an intricate blend of visuals (yes, visuals), storytelling, and solid, intelligent rock music. And, however well disguised it may be, there is a certain folk edge to this music. Add to all this a certain intellectual/literary, even academic, bent and Dead at Recess becomes a potent treat for the real listener.
This CD is also a CD-ROM on which the band introduces itself at a number of levels. At surface there is a homespun video which starts out looking like Four on the Floor (you know, the comedy troupe with the old car) but ends up with each band member in turn introducing himself, as though they were some teen rock band. The saving grace is the "your name here" bit, which you'll have to see to understand. There is also what amounts to an onboard web site, featuring everything you'd want to know about Boywonder.
A disappointment about the CD-ROM portion is that, while it is a well-executed piece of HTML, it was not written with an autostart. When the CD is inserted into the CD-ROM player, neither the HTML nor the music starts, forcing one to manually start programs to run the disc.
For some reason, when I listen to Boywonder, I am reminded of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - the song, not the movie. While well executed, much of the music on this CD has the same sort of bland, safe feel to it that "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and songs like it epitomize. But, as I have said, that is the surface impression, the one that stays only with the casual listener.
In some songs, Boywonder's sound reminds me of Green Day, 7 Mary 3, and even Kingston's Tragically Hip, yet at other times the band's sound is distinctly its own. In fact, part of what makes Boywonder interesting is that, beneath a consistent facade lies an impressive variety of musical styles.
At times, the music has that chunga chunga sound (for example, give a listen to "Bright Idea") which seems to have become de rigeur for top 40 bands in the nineties. At other times, as in "Pilgrim," the band reverts to a harder, heavier sound more reminiscent of groups like Mountain or Deep Purple.
The homespun lyrics are often complemented by a folk - or at least folk-rock - sound, not just in the melodies but in the instrumentation. This is especially evident in "Ice Age," which tends to sound a lot like the earlier, folkier Led Zeppelin, and in "Sharbot Lake," which features the same jingle jangle folk-rock background rhythms first heard behind Sonny and Cher and the Byrds so many years ago.
Even if the music were less than first-rate, this would be an intriguing CD to own. The fact is that the music is first-rate and very listenable. At times it is perhaps a bit too commercial, but then that's how musicians make a living, by selling records.Those wanting more information on Boywonder can find it at the group's home page.
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