ONE NIGHT BAND “Way Back Home”
Everyone at Pastepunk reviews records because they love music, but the constant deluge of new CDs, bothersome publicists and the responsibilities of life result in short attention spans. A great record or an awful record will show its colors almost immediately, but short attention spans can result in subtler records never getting a chance to display their brilliance. Case in point: Way Back Home from the ONE NIGHT BAND. My initial feelings were that they were skilled musicians that had the trad-ska sound down perfectly, never made any obvious gaffs but didn’t write exemplary songs. The songs weren’t as memorable as those of THE TOASTERS and the performances weren’t anything that I hadn’t heard on a BMI SKALA BIM or SLACKERS record (aside from two songs in French). Another thing about writers at Pastepunk, we all do this in our dorms / apartments / parent’s houses and sometimes when we are listening to records we’ll get caught up in doing other things like making dinner or cleaning. It is in these moments with the critical ear is at rest that sleeper records like Way Back Home really show their true colors. I happened to be taking a shower when I finally noticed the song “When I Fall In Love”. The song had so much groove and sass that it I felt like a fool for missing it when I initially scanned through the album. As I made myself all pretty and clean Way Back Home bathed my apartment in a sophisticated low key jazz lounge vibe. This was largely due to female vocalist Christine Charbonneau as well as the French Canadian sextet’s instrumental prowess. Think BRAZILIAN GIRLS if organic instrumentation outweighed the dance beats. “Interlude” as well as a cover of “No No No” continue down this jazzy forward thinking path making this one of the few records that holds its gems on the back end. ONE NIGHT BAND’s adventurous and exploratory moments put them in an odd, but good place. The instrumentation isn’t different from other mid-level revivalists like WESTBOUND TRAIN and DEALS GONE BAD, but none of them are going into this direction. In doing so ONE NIGHT BAND may have stumbled onto ska’s next sonic shift, an accident that for the record has been overdue for about five years. While they still have their male-fronted trad revivalist base, the jazzier moments are the ones that make ONE NIGHT BAND a group that all ska fans need to watch.
Stomp
