Sawdust Memories – Joeys Coop (self released)
Comes a time when bands of a certain vintage struggle to pull big numbers of people regardless of their pedigree. Sydney-via-the-Far-North-Coast quartet Joeys Coop are a prime example when they dive back into the patchy live music circuit.
You’d think a musical unit comprising guitarist Brett Myers (The End, Died Pretty), Mark Roxburgh (ME-262, The Decline of The Reptiles) on vocals, bassist Mark Lynch (Glide) and Lloyd Gyi (more bands and sessions than you can poke a drum stick at) would pack punters in like canned pilchards, but the demographic has shifted. Distractions and complications abound today and, yes, those were different times.
“Sawdust Memories” is the band’s third album in 13 years and while it retains their distinctive, tightly-coiled Velvets-meet-the-Stones sound, it pitches its share of curve balls, too.
Lead track “In The Pines” captures the band’s character well. Roxburgh’s foggy notion lyrics about the aftermath of a night at Sydney’s MoshPit bar after too many reds are set against Gyi’s emphatic drum feel and Myers’ trademark, Sterling Morrison jangle.
Myers should need no introduction if you grew up in the underground scene of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Few guitarists then (or now) could paint a tone soundscape like him ,and his sounds are all over the songs Joeys Coop.
So too is the weather-beaten vocal of the band’s other driving force, Mark Roxburgh. Mark is a formidable thinker (and we will discuss his lyrical themes elsewhere) but it’s his ability to emote and evoke moods that’s the point here.
The pairing of Gyi on drums and Lynch blends almost imperceptibly well, which is surely the mark of a masterful rhythm section. Gyi’s work on toms comes into its own on ”Hold On”.
This is a band that has mastered the art of the restrained build and it’s so evident on the Celtic-tinged ”I Met My Love”. A bedrock Gyi martial beat and Myers’ keening guitar carry the song before it all coalesces at the exit point when Brett ups the sonic ante.
Ditto the engaging “I Wanna Live” where Myers’ delicacy and Gyi’s in-the-pocket feel keep the song hanging in the air long after it closes side one of the vinyl version. It’s another song in a classic Joeys Coop mould; optimistically light on the surface but with complex touches underneath. Possibly like their crop of red wine they're touting online.
Fans of Died Pretty won’t be disappointed with anything on “Sawdust Memories”. Live, Myers plays a four-string guitar and presumably does the same on record. “Sawdust Memories” features some highly textured work. Myers adds in occasional loops and keys and they wash through the songs rather than drive melodies. His double tracked solos on the pensive closer “Old Store” are worth the price admission.
Roxburgh’s sense of vocal drama comes to the fore in many places in ways that few of the band’s contemporaries can challenge. It’s not all brooding intensity, however. The playful “I Saw The Light” has a tumbling feel, scything slide and rollicking keys that take the album in a fun and optimistic direction.
Speaking of directional changes, there are some object lessons for others inb this record. For example, “Sweet” switches things up from sweet acoustic reflection to raucous rave-up outrageously well, proving that OG dynamics beat shoe gazing that many younger Sydney bands revel in, every time.
It was a challenge for “Sawdust Memories” to top “Lachlan Valley Dirt”, the record that went before it, and initial impressions were that it had not. The previous album might have the edge sonically speaking, but this one keeps growing.
1/2
