moe. - The Conch

I first discovered moe. on the Live from Bonnaroo 2004 DVD where they were shown performing a stunning version of one of their anthems, Rebubula. I loved their blend of latin-tinged rhythm, superb musicianship and poppy lyrics. When they released The Conch earlier this year, I thought I'd give one of their recent albums a try.

Despite featuring only five musicians, moe has a heavy and rich sound on this album and on the live bits I've heard. Most tracks feature the twin guitars of Chuck Garvey and Al Schnier, backed by Rob Derhak on bass, Vinnie Amico on drums and Jim Loughlin on percussion. Nearly all of them sing and one of the features of moe's music is vocal harmonies. On this album, they add many other instruments like vibes and various keyboard sounds.

It's hard to define where moe's music comes from in terms of influence. There's a little bit of a country/bluegrass twang in the guitar playing and the solos as featured in the opener Blue Jean Pizza, but they can totally get beyond that as on the heavy and overdriven The Pit. The jam element that many bands tend to erase or subdue in the studio is very perceptible here despite the fact that none of the songs go for more than 8 minutes. Quite often, you'll have exposition through an often poppy theme sung in harmony that will slowly degenerate into a jam section with the percussions up front and the guitars wailing or picking. Wind it Up is quite characteristic in that respect.

I tend not to like pop stuff, but moe's blend of latin-tinged jam pop rock is quite refreshing and I enjoy listening to their apparently simple constructions that turn out to be more subtle and intricate than is first evident. They're not afraid to stretch out either. Another thing I like in The Conch compared to some of their previous albums I own is that it's quite varied where some of the earlier stuff tends to sound a little like the same song done differently all the way through. Not so here. The Conch is a good pick. I noticed that moe. was playing in Amsterdam in November, just a week after I head there for work. Damn. I'll have to wait for another European tour...