Night Driving in Small Towns

Serial Killer

(Lower 40)

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

This band, heretoafter referred to as Night Driving, is a duo hailing from Atlanta. Andrea Rogers and Colby Wright. I bet they know a thing or two about a thing or two about driving around in small towns. Not that Atlanta is a small town, but it’s within driving distance of a few small towns.

Can you tell it’s Friday? I’m trying to not think about that, and just write about this release, charmingly entitled Serial Killer. I think it’s charming. The artwork that goes along with the album title is quite charming. I think that’s why I found myself moving towards this band in the first place. That and a couple of references I spotted happily pointing towards Mazzy Star and Belly. The reference to the Sundays I’m just going to ignore for now.

Song one, and it’s happily wistful pop-folk that’s a bit too bright for that Mazzy Star reference, but maybe that will kick in later. Andrea’s vocals are definitely much more pleasing against my ears than Harriet Wheeler’s vocals, but I know that’s a personal thing. Song two, “Barstool,” does a nice little jingle jangle into a hop and skip across a farmyard, or a picnic green. It’s smoothed over nicely by a delicate and sweet harmonizing between the two night drivers.

This album feels a lot more like day driving, though, or early evening. There are some slow sadnesses, but I’m definitely not hearing the night. Dusk driving in small towns. I can get behind that.

The songs sometimes move and croon, and feel like country ballads that have slipped out of hiding and have been found, slightly scratched, by this band, who carefully dust them off, and make them shine again.

There are also little moments that move almost too "indie" against my ears. Sort of like two people who get together and say, “Hey, let’s write a song that can be used by some totally cool and with-it filmmaker in a movie that will appeal to the kids of today!” Not a bad idea, but seriously, I think we’ve got the soundtrack to Juno, and we’ve listened to it, and we are quite happy with just leaving the whole thing back in 2008, thank you very much. With, of course, the exception being Sonic Youth’s version of "Superstar." That’s a gift that keeps on giving.

But back to Small Towns, or, Night Driving. “Duet Song” is a charmingly folksy banjo pickin’ back porch ditty that is kind of happy, and kind of sad. That kind of applies to a lot of the songs on this album. There is a sadness, but it’s a joyful sadness. It’s smooth lo-fi jangle folk, and I haven’t heard that Mazzy Star come in yet, but perhaps if the songs were a little less cute, I’d get it.