RED
RIDERS - Red Riders (Reverberation
Records)
In the midst of publicity for the 2004 ARIA awards (for the uninitiated, ARIA
is the Australian Recording Industry Association, the industry body devoted
to helping young bands understand the importance of 
subservience
to the benevolent evil of the major labels) I saw a comment from a national
radio identity listing Red
Riders as a possible Next Big Thing.
Shortly after this glimpse into the secret world of impending success, the
Red Riders debut EP appeared in my letterbox. While I'm not yet convinced
that we'll be seeing the Red Riders sweeping the ARIA awards just yet, their
EP is a neat, inoffensive collection of subtle power pop. And like a lot of
other stuff released in Australia recently under the self-indulgent marketing
label 'power pop', it's arguably more pop than power, more suburban grass
backyard than inner-city garage, but infectious enough to leave something
behind.
The EP opens with "Tune in/tune out", dominated by country-influenced
guitar part straight out the Charles Jenkins (nee Chuck Skat; Mad Turks from
Instanbul, Ice Cream Hands) guitar handbook. "Taking Sides" comes
closer to the power pop that I was introduced to many years ago, with vocals
a bit strained, but nothing out of the ordinary (especially for a pop tune
song by someone who's probably not trained to sing). The latter part of the
song escalates into a pained commentary on emotional angst, and I'm sure I
could detect an appropriate level of irony to make it palatable.
"We'll
Be There Soon" starts out with a vocal wail, rapidly overtaken by university
students playing Tim Buckley records. The subsequent guitar solo grinds in
and out of focus; had it continued (with a more acute sense of chaos), I reckon
this song could've evolved into something ugly, but in a beautiful sort of
a way.
The final track, The Unstoppable, kept invoking images in my mind of a snotty,
knock-kneed Elvis Costello snarling out "Pump It Up", and with a
vocal line that reminded me of the Rolling Stones' "She's So Cold".
The song finishes with a tantalizing guitar flourish that caused me to spin
around quickly and stare at the stereo, like some electronic deity that was
going to show me the future of rock'n'roll, but sadly it was only signifying
the end of the EP. But in that brief moment of rock'n'roll light, I sensed
something that may come again, bigger and better next time around. -
Patrick Emery
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