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Biography
The twang of a road-tested Telecaster, a glorious wash of open
hi-hats and snapping snare patterns, the warmth of a perfect bass
line and the earnest declarations of a man yearning to be on the
highway, heading east on the 15 to anywhere but Southern California
– the new century has it’s first essential road record.
Limbeck’s latest, Hi, Everything’s Great. (Doghouse
Records), is the sort of tribute to the American landscape only
seen through unflappable virtue. The songs tell of the simple
moments that end up meaning so much: a rainy day sitting on steps
in Ohio, a long drive home from Tuscon with sleeping bandmates,
a purposeful conversation with an old friend(ex-goth kid), and
the relationships – whether lasting, fleeting, found or
lost – along the way.
Many of the tales sung on Hi, Everything’s Great. are birthed
by a photograph taken by singer/guitarist Robb MacLean, who explained,
“A lot of times what makes a song come about are the pictures
that I’ve taken on the road that are really nostalgic to
me. It’ll remind me of what was going on within the picture
or what went on that day.”
In doing so, MacLean writes at a level of honesty rarely seen
in modern rock music, perhaps akin to classic country or folk
recordings. MacLean never changes the names of people in his songs
and he never fudges the details for dramatic effect.
“Robb is someone that is really a stickler for keeping to
the facts,” said lead guitarist Patrick Carrie. “I
think that’s where the importance is, so if you bend them
a little bit it throws them off. All of our stuff, if you read
into it, it’s like watching the Robb TV show.”
Hi, Everything’s Great., recorded and produced by Ed Rose
(The Get Up Kids, Coalesce, Kill Creek), exhibits a palpable change
in Limbeck’s sound from their 2001 album This Chapter Is
Called Titles. While the band’s full-bore exuberance and
love for Cheap Trick-style sing-a-longs is still present, Limbeck
– MacLean, Carrie, bassist Justin Entsminger and drummer
Matt Stephens – have let their alt-country leanings bear
light.
Under the production guidance of Rose, Limbeck spent much of their
recording session at Black Lodge studios in Kansas tweaking their
prior notions of proper studio equipment. Experimenting with a
slew of amplifiers, guitars and drums – often choosing shoddier
models – Limbeck emerged with a more natural sound.
“About half the stuff I used was just a bunch of garbage
that you’d find at a garage sale that happened to work for
that song,” Stephens said. “If you listen to the bass
drum and the snare drum very, very closely, it distorts a little
bit. It’s just because it wasn’t a good bass drum.”
Limbeck took further liberties by adding lap steel guitar, banjo,
and cowbell parts to their mix. Piano, Hammond organ, and Rhodes
keyboard (played by Mêlée’s Chris Cron) and
female backing vocals (sung by Rachael Cantu), also added to the
album’s countrified flavor.
“We’ve been traveling a lot and country music is good
road music, and that’s just a fact,” Carrie said.
“We started listening to Old ‘97s records and now
we’ve worked back to Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, then
back up to The Flying Burrito Brothers and Uncle Tupelo.”
Armed with the endearing Hi, Everything’s Great. and a thirst
for interstate transit, Limbeck’s success is in its journey
– the places yet to be seen, the people yet to be met and
the photographs yet to be taken.
“We’re at that point in our lives when we don’t
wanna know what’s around the next corner,” Carrie
said. “It’s not like we’re that old, but we’ve
been in Southern California for a while now and it’s nice
to drive and not know what’s on the next corner. It comes
down to just being four friends that are in a van, free-roaming
… Good times!”
– Chris Whyte, Mean Street magazine
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