SNAKE FORCEFIELD
Treble With The Sweet Snake Prize CD - Outside
Like Neil Young, whom Snake Forcefield singer-songwriter Brian Hall has a tendency to resemble vocally, this Virginia based semi-solo project fluctuates between acoustic balladry, tender country/folk rock, and lumbering hard rock. But whereas Young would fluctuate on an album to album basis, Snake Forcefield does so from song to song. Hall tends to remain focused mostly on a dreamy indie-folk rock style that recalls Guided By Voices crossed with Appalachiana. There's a friendly randomness to Sweet Snake Prize; with songs switching from long, weaving tales, to concise pop ditties, to short instrumental interludes. His subject matter shifts from personal confessions to allusive stories, all of which are full of warm personality. The fact that Hall is, more or less, single-handedly responsible for Sweet Snake Prize and it's wealth of sounds and textures (vocal overdubs, synthesizer noises, various percussion) and that the album is all four-track recordings is quite impressive. Hall proves that simplicity is not always simple. There's a lot of playful experimentalism on Snake Forcefield's second full-length record, steering it clear of the monotony of most modern singer-songwriter or lo-fi indie rock albums. Sweet Snake Prize does have its pitfalls, yet it still presents Snake Forcefield as a sweet surprise delivered from relative obscurity. (AB)
Snake Forcefield - 'Treble With the Sweet Snake Prize' - Outside
Some bands get paid big money to be eclectic and mix up genre's on their records - Sebadoh comes to mind. It's not really fair then that a band that does it better than I've heard in ages remains buried in relative obscurity. That's life I guess. You know how a Guided By Voices record sounds like hell the first time you play it, but with each successive listen it gets better and better? That's been my experience with Snake Forcefield. Psych rock to folk and back to power pop - SF does it all.
Snake Forcefield-Treble With The Sweet Snake Prize
Take Will Oldham, Kevin Shields and Brian Wilson, throw 'em in a great big foodservice blender, press the purée button and what do you get? YUCK! A horrible, nauseating soup of blood, splintered bones and liquefied organs! Bleccch! And that's nothing -- things won't get any better when the cops show up. To avoid spending the best years of your life in prison, skip the blender experiments and pick up Treble with the Sweet Snake Prize. On this sophomore effort, Brian Hall has further honed his peculiar songwriting style; the classic pop melodies are even catchier, the low-fi folk rock aesthetic is lower-fi and folkier and feedback is still a deadly weapon. Hall's lyrics paint pictures of classic Americana, but the images blur and shift -- and sometimes the paint flakes and peels off while you watch. Feedback drenches the Flaming Lips-y rock of "Begin on the Fade", soaking through into "Our Town". "Siren (On the Way In)" lays down a warm, welcoming organ line over vibraphone plunking and vocal ranting. The gorgeously percussive instrumental "Key Largo" makes a striking lead-in for "The Original Theatrical Trailer Parks", a straightforward rock construction buoyed by layered vocals and bleary feedback. Need more rock trappings? "When Caution Blushes" pairs gentle country-pop harmony with restrained electric guitar wailing. You'll find a wealth of almost cinematic imagery here -- Hall is adept at seizing perfect moments and twisting them into music. Treble with the Sweet Snake Prize gives you enough miniature scenes to savor for months.
by Heath Haynes
Snake Forcefield-I Hope I Didn't Disturb You
Snake Forcefield is a one man outfit out of Lynchburg, VA with a name reminiscent of a minor bounty hunter character from Star Wars. The Forcefield is all about atmospheric guitar work layered around some definate post modern songwriting. Through the course of the fourteen songs and song fragments, you can hear traces of Stereolab, Luna, and My Bloody Valentine, but there's a definate lo-fi quality that keeps the focus on the solid songwriting. Limited info on the packaging leads you to believe that Snake handles the majority of the playing and singing on the record, although there is enough going on to warrant a "with" list of about seven individuals who helped out on the project. About half way through, this record really shifts into high gear, as Snake Forcefield leaps into some damn good ROCK AND ROLL! From the folky ballad "Out There" through to the end of the record, the Forcefield tears through a genre exhausting set. He covers three chord rockers, power pop gems, old school R.E.M., country surf ballads and classic singer-songwriter tunes: "I-40 Blues", "Turn Around", "Orange Counterfiet Sky Watchman", "Our First Summer", "Open Late", and "Anita Pours Coffee", respectively. If you dig well thought out rock and roll records ala Zuma, Boston and Girlfriend, do yourself a favor and check out Snake Forcefield, rock's next solo phenomenan.
Snake Forcefield-I Hope I Didn't Disturb You
Brian Hall describes himself, rather modestly, as a "folk and sometimes bluegrass guy", but I Hope I Didn't Disturb You makes it clear that his instincts are deeply seated in the pop pantheon. However, dismissing this disc as a mere "jangly pop album" is an absolutely clueless misnomer. Among the not-particularly-jangly-pop sounds you'll encounter are roots rock as it might have been rendered by Kevin Shields, subtle Syd Barretty lounge-pop, a healthy spoonful of swooning late-sixties balladry, a taste of driving, guitar-centric hard rock and even a spot of rockabilly. Now, this sort of genre-hopping shouldn't work, at least not consistently; under the circumstances, you'd be justified in expecting I Hope... to sound like a bunch of middling session musicians wasting studio time. But it doesn't. Each piece flows logically into the next, building upon the ideas already established. Sometimes the logic isn't immediately obvious, but everything seems...right...and all is suffused with thick, delicious, often mesmeric melody. High points include the psychedelic jetset swirl of "Dêclìnâre", the raw-and-rootsy determination of "Orange Counterfit Sky Watchman" and the blurrily anthemic "Commercials on the Airways". You should hope Snake Forcefield does disturb you, and the sooner the better.
Snake Forcefield-I Hope I Didn’t Disturb You
4 out of 4 stars
by Melissa Gill
Snake Forcefield’s album I Hope I Didn’t Disturb You definitely lives up to it’s name…there is nothing disturbing about any of it’s 14 tracks. As I was listening, I was lulled into a nice state of peace by the songs. The music is soft in some places and harder in others. Commercials On The Airwaves is one of my favorites. The vocals on this song are very beautiful, I think that is what caught me on the song. Lifeguard, with it’s echoing guitar riffs seemed to put me right in the ocean floating on the warm water (wishful thinking in this weather). Misfit and Orange Counterfeit Sky Watchman were two very catchy songs that stayed with me most of the day. They were two that you could easily hum (or sing) along to. Vocals play a large part on this album. There are many different vocal parts in each song. The best part is that they sound so great together. The music behind the voice also does it’s part. When you combine the two together, you get about 40 minutes of great music! If you want to get a copy of this CD, you can go to a live Snake Forcefield show (I see Snake Forcefield in Lynchburg a lot) or you can go to the Outside Records site at www.angelfire.com/biz/outsiderecords/index.html.
