Nice Nice, "Spring"/"Summer"/"Fall"/"Winter"

Nice Nice are Jason Buehler and Mark Shirazi: a multi-talented duo fromPortland, Oregon who have demonstrated through their brilliant fulllength album, Chrome, that they can fill sound to the wallswith only a guitar and drums and some skilled real-time effects processing.With this series—a limited quartet of numbered CD EPs which had to bemail ordered directly through Temporary Residence—I hate to admit, onthe whole, I'm underwhelmed.

Temporary Residence

What the duo proved on Chrome is that there was no timewasted: the songs were well-developed even though most of them werequite short (I'd love to comment on Yesss but I haveyet to find it in any store). "Born of Bells part 1" opens Spring with a burstof energy, as if something grand is about to takeplace, which, sadly, never does. Approximately two minutes goes by ofletting the guitar sort of echo on an auto-pilot loop before drummingcan be heard. The drones permeate throughout. The interplay betweenJason and Mark is somewhat disconnected and doesn't end up constructingwhat Iconsider to be a real song, as they come together in some sort of arenarock band finale acrobatics at the end. For the rest of the EP, songscome very close to breaking out, but never quite do. If I'm not mistaken, I think the themeis to wait until the end of the track and suddenly start doing something that forms the basis of asong, but kill it before a song actually breaks out. I find it irritating, likeone of those long jokes whose punchline is basically the pain ofbearing an extended story for some lame, anticlimactic end.

"Crown & Corona" starts off Summer with more promise, as an evil psych rocklike melody emerges from the low drones of the first track, thenbuilds, but once again, things don't erupt as they sound like they wantto. From here, the band could launch into anything either like CometsOn Fire-ish or Acid Mothers-y (or best yet, like Nice Nice) and I wouldhave no complaints, but things instead simply quiet down to anotherboring drone, drifting into a Hawaiian-like guitar bit with somewordless vocalizations at one point and some chintzy effects on thedrums later. The drifting country guitars on the following "Cowboys Are Indians" are quitepretty, but a song like this would only do well as a valley, nestedbetween some more rawkus bits. The third and fourth tracks, "Crickets & Cicadas (parts 1 and 2)," are equallyas forgettable, drifting into ennui like the EP before it, with thelast track that simply doesn't want to end.

Fallis the silver lining. When my package arrived this pastweek from TRL with the discs inside I admit I was far less enthusiasticas Iwas when the first two EPs came in, however, I was impressed with whatwas contained. The first track, "Dawn of Dusk,"opens with a peppy acoustic guitar andmelodica bit. It's friendly, original, pleasant and fun.  It's notsomething I would expect from Nice Nice but it sounds "complete."(Plus, after the first two EPs ofthis series I honestly don't know what to expect any more.) Acousticguitar drives the rest of these songs, with some external soundeffects, backwards sounding electronic guitar riffs, and otherunidentifiable percussion, all of which build actual songs, containingmelody and structure, something the rest of the CDs in this seriessadly lack.  It ends with "Down,Down, Down Pt. 2," a wistful walking-paced guitar melody which isperfect for sitting on the front porch, watching the sun go down, andhaving a beer. This is what good music is all about.

Winter,unfortunately, restores the disappointment set forthby the first two EPs with one long 22 minute song, "And Many More."I've heard Tibetan bowls and bowing of cymbalsdone from bands going back over 20 years (just about every band who hasa website on Brainwashed did it back in the 1980s), and I absolutelyhate drum solos.  "And Many More" is one painfully long andpointless wank.  If people could buy these separately then I wouldstrongly recommend sticking only with the Fall,but, with any luck, the band will find out what got the best responseout of the fans and take hints for the production of their next fullalbum.  I know they can do better than this.

samples:

• Born of Bells (part 1) [from Spring]
• Cowboys Are Indians [from Summer]
• Dawn of Dusk [from Fall]
• And Many More [from Winter]