2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Rock in a good place
'Mission Control' looks back to alternative rock predecessors - Georgia's own R.E.M
Chris Carroll
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: The Scene
If built, a nativity scene for the sound R.E.M. spawned could be seen just around the corner from where the Georgia Bulldogs will beat the Tennessee Vols in football this October.
Yes, a little college town called Athens is the Bethlehem to alternative rock as we know it today.
It's also where The Whigs went to college and got their start. (Your history professor may not agree with this point.)
Like the defunct American political party - basically reheated Federalists - there's not a huge load of originality in the group's music.
But that doesn't really matter. Their new album Mission Control sounds like what the White Stripes should have done throughout Icky Thump.
Take the biting throb of an opener, "Like A Vibration." Lead Whig Parker Gispert yowls like Neil Young woke up to a wolf, and the wall of guitar noise sounds like the Pixies at their best.
The song leaves you spinning after that perfect pop duration, 2:34.
We're immediately led to "Production City" and you'll never want to leave. It features a keep-drinking-it's-only-9:30 brand of chorus, which is the best of (an admittedly young) 2008.
A song later, "Right Hand On My Heart" delivers what the first two promised - a Thanksgiving dinner-full rock song that pounds like My Morning Jacket on vitamins from Roger Clemens.
It's easily the centerpiece of the album, and the lyrics are political enough to justify it.
Gispert refrains from the usual Republican worship of his fellow Georgia residents when he wonders if the powers will "in another week, promise?/In another year, promise?"
The remainder of Mission Control carries the joint torch of Tarzan drumming and pop hooking, hardly letting up for a breather.
It's not perfect. Ignore "Sleep Sunshine" like mysterious 439-1000 calls on your cell phone. And "I Never Want To Go Home" isn't terrible, but it suffers from "Third Song Letdown."
Two minor blunders aren't so bad, though.
If you want to support Jack Johnson and his No. 1 wimp rock album, be my guest. I'm sure he needs more soy milk in his solar-paneled fridge.
But join the Whig party and grab Mission Control if you still believe in the notion of a great American rock band.
Key Tracks: "Production City," "Right Hand On My Heart," "Already Young".
Yes, a little college town called Athens is the Bethlehem to alternative rock as we know it today.
It's also where The Whigs went to college and got their start. (Your history professor may not agree with this point.)
Like the defunct American political party - basically reheated Federalists - there's not a huge load of originality in the group's music.
But that doesn't really matter. Their new album Mission Control sounds like what the White Stripes should have done throughout Icky Thump.
Take the biting throb of an opener, "Like A Vibration." Lead Whig Parker Gispert yowls like Neil Young woke up to a wolf, and the wall of guitar noise sounds like the Pixies at their best.
The song leaves you spinning after that perfect pop duration, 2:34.
We're immediately led to "Production City" and you'll never want to leave. It features a keep-drinking-it's-only-9:30 brand of chorus, which is the best of (an admittedly young) 2008.
A song later, "Right Hand On My Heart" delivers what the first two promised - a Thanksgiving dinner-full rock song that pounds like My Morning Jacket on vitamins from Roger Clemens.
It's easily the centerpiece of the album, and the lyrics are political enough to justify it.
Gispert refrains from the usual Republican worship of his fellow Georgia residents when he wonders if the powers will "in another week, promise?/In another year, promise?"
The remainder of Mission Control carries the joint torch of Tarzan drumming and pop hooking, hardly letting up for a breather.
It's not perfect. Ignore "Sleep Sunshine" like mysterious 439-1000 calls on your cell phone. And "I Never Want To Go Home" isn't terrible, but it suffers from "Third Song Letdown."
Two minor blunders aren't so bad, though.
If you want to support Jack Johnson and his No. 1 wimp rock album, be my guest. I'm sure he needs more soy milk in his solar-paneled fridge.
But join the Whig party and grab Mission Control if you still believe in the notion of a great American rock band.
Key Tracks: "Production City," "Right Hand On My Heart," "Already Young".