Paul Newman
My Pal God Records
The Austin-and-Chicago-based band Paul Newman is not named after the movie star/salad dressing mogul. In fact, their very own bassist/guitaist is also named Paul Newman. Two people can have the same name, you know. But that's about the only thing that's confusing about this band. Their music combines the warm, oozing guitar sound of Factory Records bands with an intricate post-rock sensibility. The result sounds both startlingly modern and comfortably familiar. From time to time moments of thick bass heavy noodling break the nearly hypnotic spell. This is almost instrumental rock, the kind of music that powers factories and burbles under the surface of silent films.
"Under the Golden Horses" is from their third album, Machine Is Not Broken on My Pal God Records, which contains forty minutes of ideas you have to figure out on your own. "Popcorn," is an unusually burly and distorted wild ride that dissipates into sluggish noodling over the rhythmic strikes of typewriter keys. It appears on Re-Issue! Re-Package! Re-Package! Re-Evaluate the Songs!, which, as you've undoubtedly already guessed, is an album's worth of previously released material from singles and compilations, as well as some unreleased cuts.
Prior to their efforts for My Pal God, Paul Newman had released two other albums, Frames Per Second and Only Love Can Break Your Heart, on Trance Syndicate, as well as 45s and other material for Trance Syndicate, Twistworthy Records, and Zum. Their heady, complex sound will undoubtedly appeal to fans of Don Caballero, Slint, or Tortoise, but it also offers an excellent jumping-off point for those new to the genre of experimental instrumental rock music.
Jeanne Acceturo
last updated:
10/04/01
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