Slender Means

In these days when a new musical niche is born every day and will spawn a dozen sub-genres by the end of next week, being Slender Means would seem a dangerous proposition. What "being Slender Means" means, exactly, is being so straightforward ­ so without frills, artifice, or pretense ­ that a cynic might need to listen twice to your debut album "Neon & Ruin" just to be certain you're not being ironic. It means, apparently, being a rare species of twenty-something musician who can claim with all sincerity that your influences include the Stones, the Kinks, and the Beatles (and the relatively exotic Elvis Costello, Wilco, and Radiohead). It means making music that teems with passion and genuine affection for the capital-T truth of plain old-fashioned great music, just being five guys testing the limits of how much tuneful joy and bittersweet melancholia you can make without an exotic disco beat, a horn section, or a preening lead singer. It means cramming nearly 50 years of popular music into a compact 34-minute album that says "classic," not "retro."

Don't mistake this purity for naivety. Each member of Slender Means has been around the block once or twice. There was that one time Josh Dawson (Telecaster, voice) played with his old band Light Heavyweight at Hollywood's Viper Room for a roomful of scenesters and label-types. (Once was enough, he resolved.) There was Bugs In Amber, the highly regarded "orchestral pop-rock" outfit comprised of three-fifths of Slender Means: Sonny Votolato (Rickenbacker, harmonies), David E. Martin (keyboards), and Paul Pugliese (bass). And finally, Eric Wennberg (drums) had built a following with "Indie Rock" band Problem With Heroes. Dawson and Votolato had even played together, Quarrymen-like, as teenagers in the fondly remembered Fields of Mars.

Each had plenty of reason to know what he was looking for (or not) in a band by the time Slender Means began to assemble, a process each describes in terms of planets-aligning synchronicity. Votolato ­ who, like his brothers (Barsuk solo artist) Rocky and (Blood Brother) Cody, seemingly inherited a freakish songwriting and guitar-playing gene ­ says he "knew the songs would be great from history," from the first conversation he and Dawson had about starting a new band. He recruited ex-Bugs Martin and Pugliese, who ­ in Martinıs words ­ "heard Joshıs demos and knew right away this was going to be a successful album." Wennberg heard the same demos and "loved Josh's voice and the whole bloody thing." For his part, Dawson credits his mates ­ "the best musicians I've played with" ­ for helping him hit his stride as a songwriter.

The band soon laid down a four-song demo and started playing well-received shows around their hometown Seattle. In late 2004, they went into Jupiter Studios with producer Martin Feveyear (Screaming Trees, the Presidents of the United States of America, Damian Jurado), working as Neon & Ruin would ultimately sound: quick but not rushed, economical and fat-free, with little in the way of even old-school studio chicanery like overdubs.

"Martin Feveyear has an impeccable ear and a gift for dialing in sounds quickly," Dawson said. "He was in tune with the songs and the direction of the music and his ideas were wonderful. In short, we were very fortunate to have worked with him."

The result is that rare thing: a debut album cohesive enough to be a band's third or fourth. The songs themselves ­ including the longingly melodic "I Could Be Cruel," the contagious "Van Gogh," the vintage pub-style rocker "Hidden Grove," and the direct rock rave-up "Painless Life" ­ are the attractions here. The rhythm section is rock solid, the guitar bi-play intricate, and Votolato's harmonies manage to improve Dawson's already pitch-perfect tenor. But this combination merely provides the canvas. The songs are like Modernist paintings, collectively composing the gallery of an album that one critic described as "an amazingly accomplished album of indie pop-rock perfection."

According to Dawson, "Hearing the songs come together in the studio was one of the best times I've had making music. Getting sounds and listening to playbacks, we felt we were making something that we could be proud of."

Slender Means focused in 2005 on supporting Neon & Ruin in the Pacific Northwest. They have headlined packed gigs at Seattle scene bastions Neumoıs and the Crocodile Café, and supported such acts as the Presidents of the United States of America, the Long Winters, and the New Pornographers. They have also laid tracks from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. In 2006 they will play gigs internationally in support of Neon & Ruin, starting with appearances in Austin during SXSW.