Goddamn Electric Bill
It’s amazing how music can be fitting with any mood we carry in any day. Happy, sad, fragile, ambitious, knocked out, tired, spiritless, eager, exhausted, lonely… it is incredible how music finds its way out to enter into our personal worlds no matter what is in our hearts. With countless different sounds in its cache music always has something to lay before us and save the day.
My “need” for music has been at the top level during this past week. I needed some melody to cover both cheer and sorrow at the same time. Some melody to word feelings out better than lyrics could do. At this point of state, first band I could think of was The Album Leaf (obviously!). Although nothing can take me from listening to The Album Leaf when I mean it (me and my profound commitment to his music!), on my way to In a Safe Place another band behind arras in my mind came to surface. Goddamn Electric Bill! It was certainly what I was looking for at the time: powerful melodies to share good and bad spirits with, simultaneously. Ok, rather bad spirits perhaps. But there is certainly a bright side in the music of GDEB.
Goddamn Electric Bill is one of those bands which are bound to be heard more widely. (Not only because the name is funny, interesting and inviting!!) It is a one man band of talented Jason Torbert. Torbert had several band experiences before having decided to go on his way alone. Luckily, he did as GDEB seems like a make-out project of a man who found himself in what he has done with it.
However Jason Torbert’s personal demos were not planned to be shared with listeners in the first place, thanks to this thing called internet and its circulation of news; he found a serious fanbase in a short time. One EP, one LP and a San Diago Music Awards nomination followed this stable success before long. Considering the depth of his music, and the fact that everyone can find a piece for themselves in his melodies; his speed of climbing stairs seem frankly fair to me!
First two releases The Only Power to Please and Swallowed By The Machines are both impeccable with one word. Melodies to step in when no more words left to say… A dark ambiance incepting distinctive acoustic sounds and electronica leading to post-rock. An instrumental fest that you can’t get enough of! A cinematographic incantation processing into your senses.
Country Jam, Oui-Ja and Cab from The Only Power to Please are simply bewitching with the acoustic intros and outros getting together by an ethereal bond. Same ethereal feeling can be heard in one of the hits of this EP: Climbing Spiral Stairs as well as any GDEB tune.
Similarly, it is a natural behaviour to fall under a spell once you put Swallowed By The Machines on play. A rhytmic intro captures your concentration with Lost In The Zoo right before it starts flinging your soul between the lionizing fast beats of Our History, Part 1. Dressing you in blues with the tranquil sentimentality of Looking Up At Down before releasing your aged soul to sphere with The Nuclear Family and the bird chirrups rising in the end. Witching Hour, May Fourteenth and Opa are only few other praiseworthy selections from this completely gorgeous 10 track album. Seriously, it is so dense with emotions and sort of picturesque (!) that you feel like travelling between road movie classics.
Lost InThe Zoo video out of Swallowed By The Machines is worth to be checked if you haven’t already jumped in Youtube / Myspace / Last.fm to have a dig on this amazing band! It is like a monkey version of Donnie Darko. Quite obscure as well as being easy to remember! Not to mention that it also makes me wonder if cycling is the new trend in music video business?! (see: Bat For Lashes: What’s A Girl To Do)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zrMMAzIzcc[/youtube]
Goddamn Electric Bill is soon to release a new album: Topics For Gossip. It should be out by December. While I am growing impatient already, I think you should check him out before these former works become missed out by the upcoming stuff! And apart from these releases; I could sincerely recommend you; GDEB’s Untitled #1 (Sigur Rós), Tearing In My Heart (Sunny Day Real Estate) and Twin Peaks Theme covers too which can be found in the official site. I love how he contributes his own color into those quality songs.
Goddamn Electric Bill illuminates an eternal white image for me. White walls, white ceiling, white floor… everything is in white! Everything is in light. It is just a flowing from the heart darkening the light. Still it is peaceful. Like the feeling I get every time I watch Sigur Rós’ Glósóli video (one of the best videos ever!). Green green grass, kids, all the breathtaking beauty of nature, light filtering from clouds and all that. But you can’t still beat the dark feeling sticking to your soul! So, those who are full to lyrics for a span and “need” a misty illumination in their lives; go on and see what GDEB’s music has for you… I think you will like it!
Goddamn Electric Bill – Lost In the Zoo
Goddamn Electric Bill on iTunes