Blues for Use

Hey Boy/Innsbruck

comessThree things for instrumental music lovers to keep in mind about Spin Doctors drummer Aaron Comess’ third solo effort:

1) It’s guitar-bass-drums.
2) Despite jazz, folk and blues elements, it’s still rock ‘n’ roll.
3) Guitarist Teddy Kumpel pole-vaults over Comess’ sky-high musical bar with finesse.

“My natural instincts tend to go to the weird side of things,” says Comess in the album’s press release, “but I’m also just as interested in a simple pop song — I tend to try to make my instrumental songs get to the point like a song with someone singing words would.”

“Blues for Use” is indeed a weird album, but in an awe-inspiring way. Take “Hard Ball” for instance: Set up by the spacey cinematic intro of “Surprise – Part 1” (think “Ra”-era Utopia minus the synthesizers), it startles with “Black Dog”-like bombast but soon switches to the gentle cry of electric slide, alternating between the two motifs and topping it off with a well-conceived bridge in the middle of its ABACABA construction.

Also in the press release, Kumpel says he enjoys “letting Aaron guide my guitar in a direction I never would go on my own. He jokes that he tries to write things that make me uncomfortable to play because sometimes it takes me a lot of work trying to make the songs my own and interpret them in a way that makes him happy. It’s always a satisfying challenge.”

Comess explained the method behind his dazzling compositions in an email to Good New Music: “Most of the songs I wrote on an acoustic guitar, then I would demo the song myself playing the guitar, bass and drums, and then send them to Teddy and Rich. Then we would go over them and record. Some of the songs on this record we got to play out live before we went in the studio.”

Especially noteworthy are the variable-speed “Gorilla,” which approximates a great ape lumbering through the forest; the Friends of Dean Martinez/Sonny Landreth/Eric Johnson-like “Bajelirious,” which at times is sort of a reverse-electronica composition where the bass (Richard Hammond really shines) and rhythm guitars mimic Moog effects; “Casa Colonial,” an ode to the American Primitive genre; and the title cut, another alternating tune — this time between harmonics-laden friendly folk (à la Hot Tuna’s “Water Song”) and foreboding fusion (à la Mahavishnu Orchestra’s “Birds of Fire”).gnm_end_bug

Tracks
1. Surprise – Part 1
2. Hard Ball
3. Guilty Until Proven Innocent
4. Sunrise
5. Gorilla
6. Bajelirious
7. Clear
8. Casa Colonial
9. Blues For Use
10. Moonrise
11. Finally
12. Surprise – Part 2

Total time: 37:12

External links
artist’s website
amazon.com
iTunes Store