I don’t impress easily when it comes to music. Most of what I hear on the radio falls into the “good enough” category; I’ll leave the station where it’s at until the commercial. Very, very few times have I rushed out to buy a CD based on hearing one or two songs.
Well, this album adds one to that short list. I first heard the Ditty Bops at the Portsmouth Harbor Center in Virginia, while waiting impatiently for the main act, Tori Amos, to come on stage. Up to that point I’d been less than impressed; the bands got on stage late, the sound equipment wasn’t the best, and the first cover band was atrocious, trying to make up with volume what they lacked in talent. (I’ll spare them the embarrassment of naming them here.)
“Wait,” said someone nearby when I groused about it all, “you’ll feel better once the next band comes on. They’re great.” Halfway through the first song, I knew I had to have the CD. The energy the two women on stage put out was enough for a full band, all by themselves. The music, an eclectic mix that calls to mind the 1920s, ragtime, vaudeville, and jazz all at once, begs to be danced to; and in fact they did invite the audience to do just that during their lively cover of “Sister Kate.”
(Only a few people were brave enough — or inebriated enough — to take that invitation. I was not among them. I wanted to listen to the music!)
Listening to the CD after the show, I continued to be impressed, although I do think their live show is slightly better due to the intense energy Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald put out during a performance. Without their presence, the songs are pleasant to listen to, occasionally attention-getting, but not nearly the same stand up and take notice music that I heard that day in Portsmouth.
There are twelve songs on this album; I’ll note a handful worth special mention and leave the reader to discover the others on their own.
The CD opens with the song “Walk or Ride,” which has a chugging, regular rhythm from the first line “With just one kiss you could change the world” through the ending of “It’s so hard to change yourself easier to tell someone else/That everything is going to be okay.” To be perfectly honest, I can’t tell what instruments are being played without liner notes to clue me in (and there aren’t any); my guess would be dulcimer and ukulele. Abby and Amanda’s voices blend very nicely together into a sound that can only be described as “chiming;” their enunciation is the clearest I’ve heard in a long time. The only real failing of this song, after several run-throughs, is that the rhythm never varies, only slowing slightly at the very end. I’d like to hear a background beat that doesn’t sound quite so synthesized, so unwavering. There are a couple of times in the song when a slower beat, or no beat at all, would sound better to my ear.
The next song, “Wishful Thinking,” reminded me, in the third verse, of Tolkien and the Ents: “When the leaves start falling from the trees / When the birds start flirting with the bees / when the wind starts blowing from the East to the West / Maybe you’ll be the one that I like best.” Now, doesn’t that sound a bit like the Ent/Entwife song? In any case, “Wishful Thinking” is a quirky song with much more variation in beat, volume, and sound than “Walk or Ride.” It’s a fun song, very ragtime, and seems almost to laugh at itself along the way.
With “Ooh-La-La,” the third song, we’re back to a chugging beat, but there are so many other instruments coming in and out that it’s easy to lose that background sound. At a guess, I’d say ukulele and base guitar are two of the sounds I’m hearing on this one. The lyrics are just as interesting as the music on this song: “Momma buried pop atop the roof where he slept / One leg on each side of pointed shingles / Latest tests prove that she’s happier with more / The oyster is open for any to pearl.” According to an audio interview with the Ditty Bops, this song is about “the disintegrating of one type of lifestyle.” It’s something of an odd song, a bit disturbing at times, but probably my favorite nonetheless.
Their cover of “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” is, as noted above, an exuberant song and carries with it a strong inducement to dance, from the beginning honks of a clown-horn to the ending notes. In the audio interview, they note that they put the song in their repertoire in hopes that they could “get people out of their seats and dancing.” I may not have danced at the concert, but I sure did at home, later, listening to this song!
“Breeze of the Black Night” and “Pale Yellow” are odd ones. “Breeze” is slower than most other songs on this album, with an almost mournful sound, and the lyrics are seriously abstract: “Breeze of the black night blows / Orange light on the white porch glows / Dried up mucous in my nose / That’s how come I know.” I felt the background beat was too loud on this song, almost drowning out the singing and other instruments at times, and the lyrics were just too odd for my taste. With “Pale Yellow,” the higher key and predominant dulcimer sound save it from the dreary feel that “Breeze” runs into. It’s the first song that Amanda wrote for the dulcimer, and the lyrics reflect trying to fit in as a teenager but still be an individual: “Forever leering forever dashing / Forever looking to peers / Forever hollow that’s worst than yellow / Piss is the color of tears / This is the color of tears.” I liked “Pale Yellow” more than “Breeze,” but not by much.
Amanda and Abby name Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Django Reinhardt, Stephanie Grappelli, and Johnny Winter among their musical influences. I’m not familiar, unfortunately, with any of those musicians (yes, yes, I’m a barbarian, I know), but I’m now intending to track them down and find out if I like them too.
I will admit, as much as I like the Ditty Bops, this album wasn’t a particularly easy listen for me. After the first few songs, the lovely chiming vocals become ear-drilling, and the strong background beat is distracting. Each song, by itself, has strong and weak points; as a collection, I think it needs work. There’s no real theme to the album that I could find; it feels, in that respect, erratic and unfocused. I’d recommend dropping it in with a mix of other CDs at a social gathering, not playing it by itself.
I also would have liked more detail on the liner notes as to lyrics, instruments, history, and so on; but I can understand that they’re on a limited budget, and most of that information is available on their Web site. I’m just old-school, I guess, wanting hard copy in hand to look at, not a computer screen.
The Ditty Bops, in the end, are definitely a band worth watching, and I’d love to hear a live album. I think the Ditty Bops may be better live than studio recorded. I’ll gladly go to see them again. They’ve only been playing for about two years now; Warner Brothers signed them on after their eighth public performance, so they’ve got a good early start compared to some musicians out there. Even with their limited experience, they’ve already gathered a solid group of fans. I’m very impressed with what they’ve accomplished so far, and I look forward to picking up their next album.
(Warner Bros. Records, 2004)
