Buzz Blog
“Vision Lies captures the beginning of a band made up of people who have been in lots of bands before, trying to create a new sound for the four of them, pulling together our experiences,” says bandleader Andrew Shaw. The influences range from the likes of Thermals, Surfer Blood, Jaill, Ty Segall, Darwin Deez and Peter, and Bjorn & John.
Singer-songwriter Shaw’s (The Platte) dreams of rocking out again have come true with the help of Nick Neihart (guitar on album), Seth Howe (guitar in concert), Tyler Ford (drums) and Felicia Baca (bass, backup vocals). Color Animal started gigging May 2012 and now they release a solid set of seven garage-rock tunes here.
“I've been making quiet music at The Platte for a few years, and I love making quiet music and will continue to make quiet music. But I wanted to get loud again. I wanted to write songs that were super-simple -- straightforward. Some of them get more complicated, but mostly I wanted to write a chorus and a verse and repeat them and see what sort of addictive, catchy, aggressive, or poppy mash we could come up with,” Shaw says. Earworms, indeed!
The band is about having a good time and helping others do the same, although that stands in contrast to the content of the tunes. “Lyrically, the album isn't so much about having a good time. It's about truth, or "truth," and how truths are hardly ever true. The truth is very relative to wherever you're standing,” Shaw says. “One thing I can hold as a hard-and-fast truth can be myth to someone else. So, lyrically, I'm exploring what this concept can mean in a variety of ways.”
The Color Animal release show will be held at The Garage (1199 Beck St.) on Friday Jan. 25, at 9 p.m.; $5.
Shaw writes about several tunes from the album:
“That's a Drag”
“A band whose first album I loved came out with a new album in 2012 -- I'm not telling you who -- and I was super-excited to hear it. I dropped the needle on the record -- (just kidding; I clicked play -- and this amazing riff came out that made my hair stand on end. But they deviated from it too much -- they should have just hung and hung and hung on that awesome, monotonous riff. So, I took it and used that as a jumping off point for "That's a Drag."
“When I'm Ready”
This song is about surviving the apocalypse, which seems to be what good Americans think they're going to do. Stock up on water and canned goods and guns, 'cuz when the zombies come, you're going to be the one who survives. And when it's just you and the zombies, apparently you're going to want to continue to survive. I'm not one of those people -- I don't want to be around with just the zombies, thanks. But, hey, what zombie-apocalypse song is complete without some gang "Whoa-oh" sing alongs? Nary a one, I say -- Robin Hilton, are you listening? There's gang vocals.
“Buffalo Point”
"I'll tell you where I stole this song from: The Thermals' "Back to the Sea" from The Body, the Blood, the Machine. That album is one of the best things to ever pass through my ears, and when "Back to the Sea" comes on, holy shit, stand back -- it's just the best! "Buffalo Point" is my attempt at the concept of rocking one chord loud and hard and trying not to let up too much. The Thermals do a better job of not letting up than we do."
