When starting a band, balancing family, maturing and settling down are the farthest thing from a musician’s mind. But a few albums and years of aggressive touring can change all that: For moe., songs about pigs who can’t fly and Captain America don’t exactly represent the band’s five guys anymore.
And so moe. returns, a scant year after the band’s last album, The Conch. Sticks and Stones is not only the quickest turnaround moe. has had on a studio album, but it is the first for which the focus is specifically on writing and recording in the studio, rather than on touring.
On both Conch and 2003’s Wormwood, moe. recorded foundation tracks on the road and then overdubbed and tinkered in the studio. Most of the songs, therefore, were road-tested – practiced night in and night out – and then only slightly altered. For Sticks, moe. took the old-fashioned approach, going into the studio first and foremost. As a result, all but two of the album’s 10 songs are studio creations, a new direction for moe.
These songs also show an aged moe. Gone for the most part are bizarre lyrics and electronic experimentation. Instead, there’s a more somber tone, acoustic guitars and a 1970s Americana feel.
Bassist Rob Dehrak expresses the challenge of growing up and maintaining a sense of youth on the southern rock-leaning “Deep This Time.” In the song, Derhak laments, “Looking at 40 and acting like a child,” along with backup from Nadine LaFond, who sings on several Sticks songs.
To be completely honest, this more mature side of moe. isn’t entirely new. The Conch’s “Summer o i,” “Where Does the Time Go” and “MacIntyre Rage” forecast this direction. Two contributions from guitarist Al Schnier, “September” and “Conviction Song,” feature finger-picked acoustic guitar and a solemn tone.
“Raise A Glass,” the album’s closer, may be the best Irish drinking song not written by an Irish band. Cornmeal’s Allie Kral adds violin and viola, while Umphrey’s McGee adds a chorus of backing vocals to the pub sing-along. Schnier’s lyrics are a bit cliché – lines such as “May you never grow old and never get caught/ May you never desire what others have got” aren’t exactly breaking philosophical ground – but it’s a fun song and a risk for the band. In very un-jam band fashion, moe. will be playing “Raise A Glass” at every show during the album release tour. Fans who pre-ordered the album will join the band on stage each night to sing along. (Washington fans get their chance to sing on stage with moe. at 9:30 Club on Feb. 28.)
The band doesn’t entirely escape its improvisation-heavy roots on Sticks. The instrumental “Zed Nought Z” is 4 minutes and 39 seconds of psychedelic rock. Percussionist Jim Loughlin’s trademark xylophone plays a prevalent melody line over Schnier and Chuck Garvey’s two-guitar assault. This is the song most moe. fans will love for its live potential; the song’s spacey middle section should be a perfect launching point for extended jams.
The album’s standout song, however, is the haunting “Cathedral,” presumably named after the cathedral in Massachusetts moe. rented to record Sticks. The song is about breaking outside of one’s comfort zone, making it a perfect opener.
It’s not the finest moe. album, but Sticks and Stones shows a band ready to try something new and, for the most part, succeeding at it. Apart from the lyrically corny title track and the “la la la” section of “Darkness,” Sticks features some of moe.’s most poignant and mature songwriting to date. The band took the time to make a cohesive album and it worked, something more jam bands should take note of.
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RATING: 3.5 STARS OUT OF 5
