Band: Waxing Poetics
Album: Hermitage
Year: 1986
Style: College Radio, Jangle-Pop
Similar Bands: REM, Game Theory, World Party, Let's Active
"One Word" Review: Jangle-Jam
Based Out Of: Norfolk VA
Label: Roadrunner, Emergo, Important Record Distributions
Hermitage - Cover & Record
Hermitage - Back & Record & Autographs
Hermitage (1986)
- Beauty & the Beatitudes 2:49
- If You Knew Sushi 2:43
- Living Chairs (going through the walls) 3:40
- Fridays Child 4:31
- Return 3:15
- Distinction/ 3:40
- Walking on Thin Legs 2:59
- Mrs. Dance's Skeleton 4:01
- This Parade 4:14
- Hermitage 4:23
- A Year By Air 2:35
Album Rating (1-10): 6.0
Members & Other Bands:
David Middleton - Vox, Guitar, Production (The Probe, Smile, Splotch, Floyds of Flatbush)
Sean Hennessy - Bass, Vox, Production
Paul Tiers - Guitar, Vox, Harmonica, Production (The Probe, Mike Cross, The Master Plan, Splotch, Wharton Tiers Ensemble)
Bil Shearin - Drums Percussion, Production (Rumblefish, Left Wing Fascists, The Glory Hounds, Brian Grilli)
Mitch Easter - Engineer, Production (Sneakers, Let's Active, REM, Kimberley Rew, Windbreakers, Susanne Vega, Game Theory, Someloves, Myra Holder, Chris Stamey, Loud Family, Helium, Velvet Crush, )
Mike Mills - Production. Piano (REM, The Baseball Project, Warren Zevon, Indigo Girls, The Troggs)
Ted Jansen - Mastering
Carol Taylor - Art Direction, Cover Concept, Painting, Backing Vox, Manager
Michael Cope - Front & Back Photography
Unknown-ness: I’ve never heard
of this band before. I got this record a number of years ago, for reasons I don’t
think I even knew then. But based on the name and album cover, it looks like
hyper-intelligent indie crap that is too clever for its own good. From the cover
and names, it looks tedious, and probably is incredibly boring mid 80’s college
radio fodder.
Album Review: Waxing Poetic was
a mid-80’s Athens pop dream. Featuring production from both Mike Mills of REM
and Mitch Easter of everything else, one would have to imagine that the band
knew the exact direction they were going. They are still friends and will play
reunion shows to this day, so even though they only had 3 albums, they never
really quit. Oddly enough, this album was put out by Roadrunner/Emergo, which mainly focuses on metal acts like Life of Agony, Slipknot, Dream Theater, and The Devil Wears Prada.
“Beauty & the
Beatitudes” starts with a “What I Like About You” bass line, and soaring
guitar. The vocals fall somewhere in the middle with controlled energy, but
with an adventurous melody. Quick
changes to the melody keep you guessing in a good way.
“If You Knew
Sushi” was produced as an MTV video back in 1987, and is much more of what I
expected: a jangly song, starting out with acoustic guitar. The song is quirky,
but still manages to be quite reserved in an under-produced, flat, singer
songwriter way.
“Living Chairs
(going through the walls)” is a bit of Alt Country, with a jangly pop melody
and harmonica. This is the tedious sort of song I expected, where, at the root,
are good pop melodies, but they are covered over by extraneous elements of
meandering guitar and muted percussion; not to mention the harmonica, which is
treated like a soloing electric guitar instrument.
“Fridays Child” is a darker groove, with the bass heavy and out in front. The
vocals are subdued and deeper. If this had heavier guitars, it could have been
produced to fit into Nirvana’s catalogue, sounding a little like “Serve the Servants”
in the chorus.
“Return”
literally returns the listener to the sunnier side, sounding like a Blues
Traveler track here. As the folksy rock song continues, the electric guitar
becomes a bigger part, and it continues to build right up to a final rest at
the end
“Distinction”
starts with a pounding drum intro, leading right into the true feel of the
song: a funky jam-band bass line. A little Spin Doctors here.
“Walking on Thin
Legs” is a straightforward power pop song with bold chord changes and a smooth
delivered vocal performance. The melody gently rolls along gaining steam for
the crunching chorus. The instrumental break after the first two sections is a
bit too jangly, taking away from the song’s power characteristics. All that
said, the song is not that powerful of a song; it’s just a nice repeating melody,
reminding me of the Posies for some reason.
“Mrs. Dance's
Skeleton” enters with a slow, stumbling drum beat, and guitars are added just
as sparsely. The vocals are weary and hushed, and this feels like a slow dance
shuffle and sway.
“This Parade”
starts with a watery, jangly guitar sound, and picks up to Squeeze-like pop
pace, just not nearly as interesting. Even when it gets to the chorus, the
vocals are mixed below the guitars and bass, and are thus, not clear, bold, or
punchy. The verse-chorus repeats on a rather short loop. The instrumental is
mostly the bass line looping, and therefore, does not add much to the song. This
part of the song falls into a jam-band style of time killing.
“Hermitage” is
the title track, and one of the first songs the band recorded to be released.
It starts out with a continuously bass and drum driving tempo and breathless lyrical
approach. The verse seems to go on forever without release into a proper chorus.
The “Tables are turnin’” section that constitutes the chorus is just an extension
of the same melody with extra emphasis on the randomish jangly guitar brought
up from the background.
“A Year By Air”
slows the album down to a southern acoustic guitar and a mid tempo waltzing
drive. The song feels close and localized, like it is trying to spark a sing a
long.
