Welcome to Ashley: Beyond the Pale (2010)

Welcome to Ashley es una formación de Chicago que ya había aparecido anteriormente en The JangleBox. Con este nuevo disco, la banda continúa avanzando por senderos ya conocidos, a saber, la Americana, los sonidos más tradicionales y algo revivalistas norteamericanos y el Pop-Rock con ecos algo tradicionalistas. Una apuesta segura, en tanto que las canciones de Welcome to Ashley poseen un aura de cierta épica, un regustillo algo añejo, algo así como los primeros tiempos de REM mezclados con la forma de entender la música de Morrisey o Echo and The Bunnymen. Una especie de Glasvegas a lo Americana. Una mezcolanza algo extraña, me diréis, pero que comprobaréis que no erramos al oír temas como What a day it was for dying, Destination, Thursday afternoon, o Gotta get back to you. Podemos encontrar ecos también del Power-Pop en temas como These dreams of mine o The Catbird seat; o de los sonidos más enraizadamente rockistas en I love monday mornings o Gotta get back to you. Un disco intenso para amantes de los sonidos más puros, grabado e interpretado con honestidad y sin ningún tipo de truco ni aditivo adicional.

Welcome to Ashley – Beyond the Pale (2010)

“Beyond the Pale is the best straight -up rock record I´ve heard all …“It’s hard to find solid rock ‘n’ roll these days. Everybody’s got a gimmick, everybody’s dressed in some weird clothes, everybody’s trying to be funny. It makes me feel like Bob Lefsetz some days. But, damn it, Welcome To Ashley play solid rock ‘n’ roll. No bullshit, no filler… Frontman Coley Kennedy sounds resolutely conflicted about his adopted hometown, spinning the everyday sights and sounds into snarled poetry – Beyond The Pale is a great record for anybody who’s ever walked around the city late at night feeling happily creeped out. It almost seems like it was designed specifically for that purpose, actually… But it’s also the kind of disc that sends you hurtling down the highway at increasingly unsafe speeds. Listen to it once and you’ll be hooked – not just replaying it endlessly, but humming the melodies as you go about your daily, non-music-related tasks. The sound is warm and inviting; right from the start, huge guitars surround you, chiming and swirling like REM infused with alt-punk’s irreverent speed. Key to the record’s charm is its crisp immediacy – it doesn’t sound like it was recorded with a computer. And these analog sonic confines are a perfect match for Coley’s voice – his rich baritone betrays hints of Joey Ramone and Rhett Miller, but he’s got plenty of singular swagger. Nowhere is this in greater evidence than on the album’s final two tracks – “Thursday Afternoon” is a Petty-ish rocker that finds an emotional goldmine in the way Kennedy repeats the phrase “I fell in love with you” over and over on the song’s climax, and “End Of The Line” closes the record on a spare, lonesome note, delivered with so much honest feeling that it actually hurts. It’s probably the best song I’ve heard all year, in terms of raw craftsmanship… Beyond The Pale confirms the band’s actual greatness. Tracks like “The Catbird Seat” and “I Love Monday Mornings” sound equally fresh and timeless, like new standards in the great rock songbook. Using the simplest possible ingredients – brisk electric guitar, big melodies, Sherrlia Bailey’s precise old-school drumming – Welcome To Ashley have created something completely unique and absorbing. Beyond The Pale is the best straight-up rock record I’ve heard this year.” (Oswald Hobbes–Assault Blog, May 2010)

MySpace / Cómpralo-Get it

Universo MySpace: Welcome to Ashley

A medio camino entre las College Radios, REM, Echo and The Bunnymen, The Smiths, The Clash, Buffalo Springfield o The Replacements, nos encontramos con Welcome to Ashley, nuevo grupo que os presentamos hoy en este Universo MySpace que inauguramos hace algún tiempo y que tiene vocación de servir como descubrimiento de nuevas bandas que no tengan un gran bagaje discográfico o que utilicen nuestro blog para promocionarse, como fue el caso. Welcome to Ashley tiene todos los predicamentos para convertirse en la banda arquetípica de la escena indie norteamericana menos arriesgada, es decir, su puntillo de alejamiento de lo comercial, y cierto clasicismo en sus influencias, que la convierten en un grupo fácilmente identificable como autores de buenas melodías Pop de cierta intemporalidad y que encuentran un público fiel en la escena norteamericana. Autores de un álbum y dos Ep´s, el último de ellos, Absent Man, acaba de ser publicado, poseen un directo solvente y puedes encontrar gran cantidad de información sobre la banda en su MySpace.

“Of course the “sounds-like” folks have been busy drawing comparisons to Echo & the Bunnymen, The Psychedelic Furs, The Smiths, The Clash, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Big Star, The Faces, etc. It’s all in there, for sure, but Welcome To Ashley is much more than the sum of its acknowleged influences. Frontman Coley Kennedy combines smart, uniquely personalized songwriting with some of the meatiest power-pop hooks and edge-of-the-razor production this side of “London Calling.”… “Kennedy’s vocal style recalls, by turns, Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie and Ian McCulloch of 1980s post-punk icons Echo & the Bunnymen.”… “guitar parts that are lush and nearly orchestral, yet retain an unmistakable pop hook.”… “Jeffrey Jones, a Park Theater volunteer event coordinator who booked Welcome To Ashley for the May 31 concert, describes Bailey as “a great, in-the-pocket drummer, powerfully propulsive, yet tasteful … no gratuitous showboating. It’s a similar spirit and talent that Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, Max Weinberg of the E Street Band or Topper Headon of The Clash, three of the greatest rock drummers, bring to their roles behind the drum kit.”… “Jones added that Barrett “evokes the spirit of Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, or Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett of Bob Marley and the Wailers, or maybe even Reginald Workman of the John Coltrane Quartet.”… “Adds Jones, “From my vantage point as a music lover, or rather a music-obsessive, their approach to the music they create seems to be informed by both disciplined study and by what they love about music. They’re just a great band, period.” (ourstage.com)

“If you threw the best new wave CD’s ever in a blender and poured the contents into a mold, popping out a band the embodied everything you loved about The Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Clash- you’ve created Welcome To Ashley; a band even Q101 called among the best of 2008. Their sound is not dated, yet gives polite nod to its predecessors, and feels Midwestern rock despite its birth in Nashville. WTA stays refreshing where others with similar technique fall off the radar after a song or two. Unlike other Chicago bands clinging to familiar territory, WTA challenges with semi depressing lyrical content without jumping the line into emo territory to cry among the others. Instead they blend intelligence to the glamish swagger reminiscent of every old Brit band I wished I could have been old enough to see perform. Until time machines are invented, WTA fills the void by writing songs those old bands would have been proud to write themselves” (the indie music examiner)

MySpace

Oír/Hear: Nothing but the grey skies ahead

Oír/Hear: Trust in me

Descarga/Download: Nothing but the grey skies ahead

(Gracias a NoVo Artist Management)