The White Ravens

Gargoyles and Weather Vanes

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

White Ravens. A brother and sister team who has been making music together for about six years. Amy was twelve, Will was eleven. Now, for recording purposes, they have added drummer Liberty DeVitto into the mix. Currently, post-CD release, the drummer is Vince Russo, and these ravens have added guitarist Andrew Brown into the band family.

Hold on… Liberty DeVitto? Billy Joel’s drummer for thirty years? The guy who played drums on 52nd Street, The Stranger, and Glass Houses? That guy?

Yeah. That guy.

Okay, my head has stopped spinning.

So what kind of music flutters out from under the feathers of these White Ravens?

It’s poppy indie piano rock pop. It’s like Ben Folds Five, if Ben Folds was an eighteen year old girl. I can’t help but think of Billy Joel, but I shouldn’t. It’s a little dancey poppy keyboard electro background noise at times, but the piano mayhem and the drums keep things moving solid and melodic. I don’t want to say “Twee” but at some point I might have to. I can say bright and silly.

“Atomic Panda” hits with a little techno dance floor groove, silly, but solid. Alt.disco in the house. Then “Detritus” hits with a slightly unexpected rock guitar groove, and then falls into a strange ballad move, and suddenly I’m hit with an image of Jefferson Airplane as filtered through a teenaged They Might Be Giants.

There’s a playful voice that moves through the whole album, even though there are some darker moments, a few shadows falling in the piano lounge. Still, it’s a good album. A good snapshot of a young band who are dedicated to what they do. It’s unpolished at times, and there are a few songs that you know could have been executed a little better, but you can hear where they’ve come from and get glimpses of where they want to go, and you can’t help but feel a little excited for the journey that lies ahead.