Garretson & Gorodetsky, “Change Things” (Catasonic)
A voice from the other room calls out as the recording, based on a twisty-funky guitar-sax riddim riff, slams to a stop with the vocalist’s ecstatic shrieks. “Who is that?!” the remote voice wants to know. “Weba!” “I loves it! Best thing she’s ever done!”
We’re talkin’ ’bout the concluding title track from Garretson & Gorodetsky’s new “Change Things.” And the group’s fourth album surely does bust out with fresh energy. The platform remains: Weba Garretson on voice and keys, Ralph Gorodetsky pluckin’ jazzy guitar and harmonizing vocals, Brian Christopherson on drums, Laura Grissom on bass. This time producer Mark Wheaton has punched up the dynamics at Gold Diggers Soundstage, and the band has unleashed Vince Meghrouni (Atomic Sherpas, Mike Watt, Fatso Jetson) to spray his formidable arsenal of woodwinds, harmonica and vocals all over the place.
So we hear the reliable G&G aesthetic of bent poetic eclecticism — just hotter, crazier, more colorful. The record launches with the ambitious “Weight of the World,” a schizophrenic mini-opera whose nervous coffee gets a break via Meghrouni’s floating flute. Meghrouni’s harp then blows our eyeballs out on the socko blues of “Marriage,” as Garretson digs down into her bad white self to find new ways to bark. Christopherson & Grissom saddle up a caravan hump ride for an abstractly wailing Garretson on “No Name,” trailed by Meghrouni’s playful flute. Don’t miss “Tide,” a sunny tourist snapbook alternating with moody introspection and spooky harmonies.
Gorodetsky is always around to blend those harmonies, often three-way; his rhythm guitar and single-string conjunctions with Meghrouni form the backbone of the sound — G&G have often performed as a duo. This is a five-piece band, though, sounding like a unit and making the most of it. Catch ’em live.
Listen/buy here.