The Shys - You'll Never Understand This Band The Way That I Do CD Review

The Shys second full-length release, You'll Never Understand This Band... is a winner. It is a fascinating mix of 60's British psychedelia, 70's pub rock and indie-punk channeled through vision a young southern-California band.

The band makes a bold move by starting the album with a mid-tempo instrumental (not the typical Side 1, Track 1) which features both a violin and glockenspiel. One needs to listen to the whole album to really appreciate the depth of the band's songwriting abilities. Across this disc, the band embraces a variety of musical styles that range from The Beatles' psychedelia-era (Revolver and the White Album), Nicky Hopkins-era Rolling Stones (Exile on Main Street and Goats Head Soup) and pub/roots-rock (The Kinks/Dr. Feelgood).

The standout tunes are on this disc are the "Savior", "She's Already Gone", "Find Some Courage". All of which have a sort of a John Lennon vibe but singer Kyle Krone makes these tunes his own. Kyle Krone has a great voice that matches the band's style of music as his delivery ranges from John Lennon-ish fuzzed-out psychedelia to world-weary Mick Jagger-style blues (on "Mercy" and "Brother Please"). Even though I prefer the Beatles/Stones-style tracks, the pub-rock tracks are pretty cool and may get me to break out my Dr. Feelgood albums. The only track that doesn't seem to fit with the overall flow of the disc is "All on Me" which is a John Eddie/Bob Seger-style roots rocker.

The Shys returned to Aeronaut Records for You'll Never Understand This Band The Way That I Do and the record hits the streets on July 22. Check out Mojo Republik's in-depth interview with The Shy's where they talk about the upcoming CD and their move back to Aeronaut Records.

Links:
The Shys' Website
Aeronaut Records

Robert Francis Releases First Video, "Little Girl", from his One By One CD

Robert Francis released his debut CD, One By One, late last year (see previously posted CD review of One By One). Robert just released the first video, "Little Girl", from the CD.



This is a pretty wild video. It takes a little bit of getting used to as the video starts off in reverse (with both the storyline and cinematography) and ends in quite the twist of a beginning.

Robert's currently in the studio laying down tracks for his upcoming sophomore release. Given this, there aren't any upcoming shows scheduled but here is link to Robert's interview and live performance on NPR which was recorded in October of last year.

Links:
Robert Francis' MySpace profile