Dept. of Energy

Faster

(Roam)

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

A second release by these Seattle soundsters, and it sounds like it should. Basically a keyboard guitar driven pop band that came into being after the end of the Dear John Letters. Singer / Guitarist Robb Benson wanted to make some more music, maybe reform the band, but the only one who came along was drummer Cassady Laton. No more Dear John Letters here, so time to do the new.

Robb and Cassady, meet Ty. Ty Bailie. The man with the keyboards, the man who’s played with Truly (a long time favorite band of mine), and Kim Virant. The trio then stood together under the name Dept of Energy, and music was made.

On this, their second release, the three are joined by Robb Sangster, a man about Seattle town engineer/producer/musician who has done some musical time with the Dear John Letters, Steve Turner, Mark Pickerel, and the Makers. Also joining the cast and crew we have Margrethe Bjorklund on pedal steel, Jeff Fielder with some slide guitar and banjo, and Barb Hunter laying down some Cello. Amazing musicians all. I’m personally very impressed that Barb has played with the Afghan Whigs, as well as Half Light, and a host of others. Margrethe has thrown down some nice pedal steel on a number of releases, and Jeff has played with Sera Cahoone, Kristen Ward, and, of course, many more.

So, the music. It feels, to me, very Seattle. I’m not talking like the old and tired “grunge” Seattle, but the upbeat and bright pop Seattle. The fun and enjoyable world of music that shone in the Pacific Northwest between the death of grunge and the birth of the beard. The Dept of Energy reminds me of the high piano pop of the Prom, the catchable hooks of those Harvey Dangers, the hopped-up bounce of Peter Parker, but all of it toned down and smoothed around and lacquered over with a thin brush of some kind of Billy Joel as filtered through one fifth of the Polyphonic Spree. A slight push towards a prog-rock vine spirals out of the keyboards and moves into a sing along gospel vibrating alt.country sunset, and then the band stops, winks, and pops again.