CASTEVET – “Summer Fences”
Usually, when describing bands, I have to hedge my bets somehow, because there’s always that stray influence, but with CASTEVET, it’s really easy: CHUCK RAGAN fronts AMERICAN FOOTBALL. If that doesn’t set you a-twitter, really, there’s not much that will.
There’s eight songs on the full disc, two of them over seven minutes, and the rest are around 5:20, with the lone 3:30 song, so there’s plenty of build up moments. Sometimes the songs go a little long in the tooth, but whatever, that happened with AMERICAN FOOTBALL, but really, the description of this is that basic, elemental and straightforward. It’s a rough, gravely voice over lush mid-90′s emo.
Okay, by 5:30 mark of closer “When A Movie Is Made In France, It’s Called Cinemas”, I found myself asking if the disc really was still going, but it almost petered out, then came back for some more guitar noodling. It’s indicative of the general tenor of the disc, but it’s not a deal-breaker, just more than my palate is ready for at a time.
But, even without the hometown bias, (the opener is a song named after stops on Chicago’s Red Line train) I have no trouble saying CASTEVET’s Summer Fences is worthy of your time even after the summer ends.
