All Smiles preview

All Smiles, Sea Wolf
Empty Bottle, Chicago
Saturday, May 19, 2007

Eschewing the ambitious prog and conceptual geekiness of Grandaddy, Jim Fairchild tries on shoes in a fictional store that would probably cater to George Harrison or Joe Pernice.

Freak sounds still gurgle and slobber on All Smiles’ Ten Readings Of A Warning (Dangerbird), but Fairchild is detailing things a little closer to home than the “Broken Household Appliance National Forest.” A move to Chicago didn’t predictably weave him into the post rock fabric, instead the guitarist honed his tune-carrying voice and lyrics into, as the title makes plain, cautionary tales. “The Velvetest Balloon” warns “Careful with every act you can abuse/It only corrodes when you allow it to,” only to watch negligence manifest itself in the next track, “I survived/A moth in a cloud of smoke.” That it’s all laid out in the metaphor of a failed relationship really hits home in the final track, “Of Course It’s Not Up To Me,” where tentative piano chords feel for space in a darkened room, and Fairchild is left wondering — as he probably did when Grandaddy split — where it all went.

Labelmate/opener Sea Wolf is actually Alex Brown Church (recording under a pseudonym is a Dangerbird tradition: see also One AM Radio), who’s out spinning his debut EP, Get To The River Before It Runs Too Low, before dropping a full-length in September. Like All Smiles, there’s a subtle restlessness in the singer’s gentle tone (“Will you talk to me even though you’ve had a late night/I need a little help/Tell me I’ll be all right”) trying to escape through the familiar roll of pop radio.

Bronze, a Chicago-based modern jazzbo something lounge outfit, play first.

— Steve Forstneger

Click here to download Sea Wolf’s “You Are A Wolf.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly