Labels: Edna
Review by: Andy Malcolm
I know I have been talking too often about the actual process of receiving CDs for review at the C in my reviews lately, but I am going to keep that tradition going with this one, my apologies for such feeble self indulgence. Provan must have been like the first ever band to send me something for review as far as I know, whatever made them choose the C I’ll never know. Well, that was back in what, 1998 or 1999 or something like that! They’ve printed the review on the sheet that comes with this record, and it even has a pic of the fabled Collective bi-plane of all things! I think I should revive that look. Anyways, I enjoyed that first EP, and I enjoyed this one too.
Provan is a band from Williamsburg in the US and they play pretty rocking, melodic power pop type stuff. There are six songs present (as on the first EP) and they drive through them in 20 minutes and it’s a fairly varied collection of songs. The guitars are biting enough to keep the material a ways from being too straight forward and it has a fair bit of drive to it for the most part. They are vocally strong and engaging, and also throw in an element that reminds me of Fountains of Wayne (fine band) on “Idiot Lines” with it’s retro-ish (Kinks?) sort of bass, and “Kid on a Stick” is very catchy and has “yeah! yeah” backing vocals. They also have a fine laid back number on here called “Fire Watching Time” which is nice and drifty.
Pretty solid stuff and a bit of a blast from the past in a sense. By the time you read this a full length will have hit the streets too apparently.