Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Inagural Post
So, here goes. I felt like this blog would be a good idea to keep everyone up to date on all of the things that go on with Complete. A lot of stuff has happened behind the scenes that a lot of you wouldn't know about. I get contacted by a lot of people about the video, and every once in a while, it might be news worthy, so I will share it here. The Myspace page has been a godsend, so hopefully this will be a good supplement to that.
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1 comment:
Hi,
Great idea for a Complete Blog! Sometimes a band is just TOO big for just a simple MySpace page!
I wanted to post a review that
Klay Williams sent to the Complete MySpace page. It is very funny, and very true!
Dave G.
BluesAirmen Guitars
Review of the performance by Complete...
Body: I must say, at first I was dubious. COMPLETE is an audacious name for a band straight out of Nowhere, Mississippi.
But this ragtag band surprised me. What I was most intrigued by was the sincerity of the band's passion. And to balance the lion of that passion is the lamb of their naivete. They are a little like children, wide-eyed and wondering at the potential of the rock and roll world in which they find themselves. Their passion and naivete playfully wrestle throughout the band's minimalist repertoire.
The lead singer is no doubt the intellectual powerhouse of this mysterious quartet. After all, it was he who crafted the band's name from each of their initials. The strong, silent, mustachioed drummer serves as the band's enforcer. He does this both musically, as the backbone of the rhythm section, and socially, as the "muscle" for those occasions when the singer's expert diplomacy fails to de-escalate a potentially violent situation. The guitarist is an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, and sprinkled with a powder of mystery. No one knows who the man really is, or what he is capable of. And finally, we meet in the baby-faced bassist the real heart of the band. Don't let the Seuss hat fool you--the Marianas Trench has nothing on the depth of this man's feelings.
Now for the really difficult part of this column. How does one distill the complex melange of musical nuance present in COMPLETE's work into a few sentences? How do you capture the light of the moon and make it your own, like some bauble you might wear on a pendant? I assert it cannot be done. Instead I will try and offer you glimpses into the genius of these masterful composers, as well as the ephemeral beauty of their compositions.
The singer's vocal technique is as daring as it is powerful. To hear him speak, one would never guess that such a temperate voice would mask an instrument of such power. He can alternately make angels cry and make devils piss their furry little pants.
The guitarist has the arcane ability to evoke pure aural magic from his ax that only a few others, like Hendrix, Vai, and Malmsteen, ever exhibited. The sound is something like a banshee's wail sliced by Poe's lethal pendulum into sonic shards launched to lacerate your eardrums--but in a good way.
Only the most expert drummers would attempt the complex polyrhythmic pastiches produced by this prodigious percussionist. These exquisite tapestries of interwoven beats have been variously described as Yoruba tribal drumming as interpreted by a beach full of jittery hermit crabs; what it would sound like if synchronized plane-crashing were ever made a sport; and the whimsical finger-poundings of a dullard child when he finally sees his loving mother.
More than any other member, the sweet, sensitive bassist makes music that transcends description. His basslines dodge and weave through the songs like a drunk Muhammed Ali on rubber crutches. The deep and awesome notes are, like the kung fu master, as hard as an oak but as flexible as a reed. This bassist emotes. He evokes. He stokes the fires of passion, all the while caressing the listener's trembling ear.
It would be a grave mistake to write off this band as a one-hit wonder. Granted, Hoogie Boogie Land is already a classic in the annals of rock and roll. And granted, bands that peak early rarely stay for very long, but I'll bet dollars to donuts that COMPLETE is nowhere near finished.
Klay Williams
Music Columnist for
The Philosaurian
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