Going Back Through The Shelves
I managed to get this song stuck in my head the other day, and after a little bit I traced it back to an album called “Wild Dogs With X-Ray Eyes,” by a band called Helicopter Helicopter. They’d come through Indianapolis a couple times about four years ago, pulling the well-worn routine of crashing on floors and living off of Taco Bell on their way across the nation. I’d picked up the album at the first show, and upon further listening I was struck by the unrelenting string of great songs - I kept trying to skip ahead to the song in question (”Time Machine”), and I kept getting hooked by these big choruses (and the occasional massive bass tone). It’s a shame more folks didn’t hear this album.
There are plenty of bands like this that put out some great work, whether it’s the soul acts that populated the Midwest and thrust back into popular consciousness by labels like Stone’s Throw or great rock bands like this one who put in serious road time and release great work, but whose albums don’t quite go over on the popular charts. As it was put in one of the songs on the album, “The best ones fly beneath the radar.” The album may not be fresh, but these big guitars and sparkling harmonies stand up well. It’s not a new forumla, and the band isn’t even functional anymore (they’ve moved on to a more experimental project called Hello Dragon), but it just struck me today.