FATAL DISTRACTION
It's 10 pm on a Saturday night. I am at El Paseo, nursing the evening's first Red Hook, back hunched against the unseasonable cold that sweeps in every time the door opens, one eye on NCAA basketball on the plasma screen, one eye on local trio Amazing Larry as the group kicks into its first tune of the night, a cover of Prince's "Since You Been Gone." It's a great, fun song. Amazing Larry is a great, fun band, a group that smiles wryly, that covers cheesy songs with love and without
a tinge of irony. El Paseo is fairly crowded. A very sweet couple starts dancing. There's an energy of sorts.
Then why am I so bored? It's a complaint I've heard many times-"I'm bored. Santa Fe is boring. There's no good music. There's nothing to do." But that's just plain not true. There's plenty to do. It's just no one does it.
In fact, in a sense, there's too much to do. We're distracted. As I glance around El Paseo, maybe 50 percent of its patrons have their backs turned away form the band. Most, like myself, are eyeballing March Madness on one of the several plasma sets lacing the walls. Almost everyone is chatting. Or ordering beer. Meanwhile, the poor band looks a little shell-shocked, barely attempting to grab any attention.
But, if anybody were to pay attention, they might find a pleasant surprise: Amazing Larry might need to speak up a little, but the group can carry a night. As with many local bands, this night there's no need for basketball or bar games or what-have-you, if we can just focus, people. Let's try it. Let's change our habits a tinge: Instead of watching muted ESPN, let's make an attempt to listen to just, say, two songs from whatever group is working their underpaid butts off. Or, if we find the vibe to be a little lacking, let's run around the corner to catch another underpaid, under-noted local band. For god's sake, at least the run will get our blood pumping.
GETTING 'ROUND TO IT
In the meantime, one band worth paying a great deal of attention to is Round Mountain. When I cracked open their self-titled 2004 disc, I felt the familiar wave of dread I often feel when confronted with "roots music": a slight bit of nausea at the prospect of hearing another earnest band muddle through a pile of bluegrass covers, mandolins in hand as they preach the gospel of the Carter family.
But what a treat Round Mountain-consisting of brothers Char and Robby Rothschild-turned out to be, and you can tell the brothers' quiet prowess within the first few seconds of the CD's opening track, "Unknowing," a moody, introspective piece that keeps the scratchy plunking to a minimum. The song is an updated Appalachian dirge, potentially at home amongst anything put out by Iron and Wine or Bonnie Prince Billy. The rest of the disc meets the standard set by "Unknowing," crossing the globe in terms of influence and running the gamut between downtempo ballads and jiggy folk songs. Topped off by excellent production,
Round Mountain
is easily one of northern New Mexico's best outputs in the past year. The group has been playing at Travel Bug (though not this week) and several other spots around town, so keep an eye on Hear, Here and catch 'em sooner rather than later.
