produced
by
the buzzrats, Geoff
Streadwick and Chris Goosman
engineered by
Geoff Streadwick and Chris
Goosman
mixed by Chris Goosman
mastered by Chris
Goosman at Solid Sound
duplication by World
Class
recorded at 40 oz.,
Ann Arbor, MI.
artwork by Phil Rachford
design by Christine
Golus
SPECIAL
THANKS to Michael Burbo, Todd Perkins, Japhy Leggett, Josh Pollock,
Jeff Westover and John Leftus for listening to Cartoon Twilight in the
early stages and for valuable comments and advice.
THANKS
to Drew Peters for useful insight at the first mixing session.
musicians
Steve
Leggett
acoustic and electric guitars, organ, rhodes
piano, vocals, hums
Vino Veasley electric
guitar, e-bow, drums, vocals, 50¢
Charlie Murphy gongs,
trapkit, tamborine, cosmidor, tibetan bell, chimes, saw, roto-toms,
cymbal stand, bongos, claves, guiro
Nate Higley trap
kit, chicken shaker, space car
Phil Tepley electric
guitar, slide, feedback, vocals
Rob Crozier bass,
acoustic bass, harmonica, piano strings
Geoff Streadwick mandolin,
organ, bass, laptop steel, b-bender, drums
Chris Goosman bass
Aria DiSalvio cello
Bran Leggett cello,
organ
The Buzzrats Paint Their Masterpiece
by Brian Lillie
Agenda Magazine
(Ann Arbor, MI)
January,
1999y
Speck in a Ruthless Universe
Current
- Ann Arbor's Entertainment Monthly
Occasionally, a band springs
so fully-formed into our collective musical mindstream that we can hardly
remember what it was like before we heard them. Can you imagine
a world without The Stones or Otis Redding or Joni Mitchell? They
somehow provide a lost aspect of our hearing that we did not even know
we were craving.
The Buzzrats, a six-piece, post-everything
Ann Arbor band have become that for me in the short time that I have
been listening to their brand-new album, Cartoon Twilight. It
ranks as one of the few actual masterworks our local scene has produced
(up there with "Snap!" by Dick Siegel, and "Hokey Smoke"
by the dearly missed Frank Allison and the Odd Sox).
Cartoon
Twilight is a banquet. Seventeen
songs that range in tone from hushed meditations, to impossibly catchy
scruff-pop, to whacked-out psychadelia, without ever coming across as
heady or pretentious. Imagine an inspired cross-pollination of
The Band, Eno, Pavement, The Allman Brothers, "Hunky Dory"-era
Bowie, and John Prine, and maybe you will get close to picturing their
sound.
"I
compare working in the studio to finding a piece of driftwood on the
beach," says lead singer-guitarist-organist-chief songwriter, Steve
Leggett. "I find this object and bring it in and then we
all poke at it until we figure out what we can build from it."
The six Buzzrats are a walking encyclopedia
of music, and they all play multiple instruments. Vino Veasley
on electric guitar and drums is the resident King Crimson and Pink Floyd
art-rock fanatic. Charlie Murphy on drums and percussion is a
Deadhead. Nate Higley on the trap kit is a veteran of the punk
scene. Rob Crozier plays acoustic and electric bass and harmonica
and loves jazz. Phil Tepley, the Rat with the most formal musical
training plays guitars and saxophone and is an ardent disciple of Neil
Young. Leggett, of course, is a fan of both old-timey fiddle music
and weird bands like Big Star.
The tried-and-true Buzzrat technique
of learning to play the songs in the studio on the day they are to be
recorded yields an amazingly fresh sound, and gives each cut its own
unique flavor. "We feel that the first thought is usually
the best thought," says Leggett. "Of course, until a
song is finished, we have no idea what it's going to sound like!"
The songs themselves are beautiful
miniature landscapes that draw on such diverse topics as the true story
of country music legend Lefty Frizzell's incarceration in "UFO
City" in the 40's ("Lefty in Roswell"), and the fleeting
imagery in an autistic boy's mind as he gazes into a shopping center
window ("Long Blue Sleeves"). Leggett is not a straight-ahead
narrative writer, but he captures moods and complex emotions with astonishing
ease:
Some things get taken
Some things get lost
Some things get found in a new place
At twice the cost
-(from
"Anytime")
One of the album's stunners is the title track, a completely unique
song that conveys the stirrings of a new era ushered in by JFK's assassination,
through the eyes of a couple kids playing in their yard as the leaves
are beginning to fall that bleak November.
Cartoon
Twilight was recorded at 40 Oz. Studios
by the late Geoff Streadwick, whom the band met as guests on another
album. "Geoff saw something in us and said that we should
call him if we ever decided to record a project of our own," recalls
Leggett.
That project wound up being The Buzzrats
first album, A Tiny Speck In A Ruthless Universe, which
came out last year to favorable reviews. The band and Streadwick
formed a strong bond while making that album, and they eagerly began
recording the follow-up with Geoff as producer and "seventh"
Rat, playing mandolin, organ, bass, lapsteel and drums.
Streadwick's untimely death a year ago
has left a void in the Ann Arbor music scene, and has hit the band hard.
The album had been almost finished when he passed away, and it
was in completing the project with Chris Goosman at the board that the
touching final track "First Engineer" was added, as a tribute.
"He was a special guy," says Leggett. "We
lost a great friend and an amazing musician when he died."
I will go out on a limb and say that
Cartoon Twilight is as good as any national release of the past three
years, and marks the full maturity of a band and a vision that will
be reckoned with for a long time. We will all be able to say,
proudly, that they came from our stomping grounds, even as none of us
can remember quite what it was like before they arrived. Very
highly recommended!
POST
MODERN ACID-FOLK
(4 out of 5 stars)
Detroit
MetroTimes.com
Led by vocalist-songwriter Steve Leggett,
the loose confederation of musicians that is Ann Arbor’s Buzzrats
has hand-delivered the goods with Cartoon Twilight, the group’s
sophomore release. Cartoon Twilight is a rough, inspiring ride, skillfully
traversing the craggy course between deliberate orchestration and the
first-thought-equals-best-thought spontaneity of rock’s most immediately
affecting work. The songs here breathe with diversity — from the
bar boogie rave-up of "Maybe Don’t Go" to the sticky,
slo-mo nostalgia of the title track. And on "Long Blue Sleeves,"
the Rats preach wearily about "bright shadows on the edges"
and "beautiful machines" atop thick twirling layers of electrical
guitars that wouldn’t sound out of place in modern-day space rock.
Spiritualized, indeed. Cartoon Twilight’s distinct blend of gospel
organ, swamp rhythm, avant-noise and country twang hovers loosely above
singer Leggett’s appealingly Lomaxian folk aesthetic – creating
a mood that’s both reverent to the past and surprisingly fresh.
On "Like a Ghost Who Knows" halfway through the disc, the
Buzzrats pose the question: "Post modern, now what does that mean?"
In the Cartoon Twilight, the answer comes easy, like a big, beautiful,
born-again ache.
–Adam Druckman
The Buzzrats
Cartoon Twilight
Current
- Ann Arbor's Entertainment Monthly
March 1999
The
soundscape of The Buzzrats' Cartoon Twilight unfolds like the
interior of a High Gothic cathedral as you walk through the doors --
layer upon beautiful layer of acoustic guitar, percussion, organ, and
strings building upon each other to create a vast, imposing space, finally
arcing toward heaven wiht a vaulted ceiling.
Geoff
Streadwick's posthumous presence is felt through his calculated production
and his subtle, textured walls of organ hum. The results are some
amazing crescendos. The guitar assault of "27 Blues"
and cymbal crashes of "Raising Money for Michael" are thoughtfully
and gradually orchestrated, providing real emotional fulfillment.
Steve
Leggett's tentative, raspy voice can sound at once injured and amused.
His uniqure delivery grows on you with a few listens, but some
of the lyrics he sings may take a few more. "Postmodern: what
is that?" challenges Leggett on "Like a Ghost Who Knows."
If
Cartoon Twilight falls into any trap, it's melodrama. The
sheer number of toys at The Buzzrats' disposal occasionally clutters
basic melodies.
Still,
catchiness does not escape them. Songs like "Maybe Don't
Go," and "Lefty In Roswell," although bathed in cerebral
sonic washes, do boast MTV-worthy hooks and choruses.
A
wistful, melancholy mood makes Cartoon Twilight somewhat less
than radio-friendly, but The Buzzrats succeed in establishing a healthy
emotional range through an occasional turn-of-phrase and playful instrumentals.
One of the record's greatest strengths is that songs melt sweetly
into each other, creating a single, fluid opus.
--Trevor Boyer
more buzzrats albums: