“In this age of movable borders and rootless transnational firms,
Tortoise is equally free to compose, sample and lift as whim strikes
…”
I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean, exactly, but it was
written two years ago, back when the concept of “post-rock” was
just beginning to glimmer behind the eyes of rock critics everywhere,
and its geo-millennial significance was a fair topic for knowing
cocktail-party banter or – as in this case – the pages of Raygun.
But that’s the risk the new instrumentalism (or whatever you
want to call it) runs. It doesn’t rock – at least not with a capital
“R.” We know that. Well then, what does it do? Lost for an answer,
vague analogies to “rootless transnational firms” start looking
pretty good. In other words, so-called “post-rock” risks being
not at all about the music, but all about the theory. Get it?
It’s not rock.
Tortoise, however, requires no such critical apparatus. In the
same way that Stereolab is better described as New Order with
fewer electronic effects than as a rock band with more, Tortoise
assimilates electronic techniques without sacrificing the inimitable
warmth of real bass and percussion. The result isn’t anti-rock
or pre-millennial or anything else. It is, however, pleasant to
listen to, whatever the rootless transnationals are up to.
As for the missing vocals, it always feels like they’re coming
in at any second. But don’t believe me. Feel the difference next
Wednesday, when the theory-heavy German outfit Oval opens for
Tortoise at the New Daisy. – Jim Hanas
St. Louis’ One Fell Swoop, who’ll be at Newby’s this Saturday
opening for Memphis’ own y’all-ternative heros the Pawtuckets,
was one of the more pleasant surprises to come out of the Folk
Alliance conference held here last February.
It’s amazing that this country-ish quintet hadn’t made the trip
down I-55 before then. I say country-ish to be deliberately vague.
Since, they’re not from Nashville (and since bassist Dade Farrar
is the brother of Wilco’s Jay Farrar) most people will be inclined
to lump One Fell Swoop in the alternative country genre. (Whatever
that means.) But close your eyes and listen and you realize that
the band’s sensibilities aren’t that far from Vince Gill’s, Mary
Chapin-Carpenter’s, or Rickey Skaggs’.
The truth, as usual, probably lies somewhere in between. Regardless,
One Fell Swoop is a good twangy, rootsy group. Oh, and I highly
recommend their latest CD, look out, too. 
– Mark Jordan