The Mess Hall – For The Birds – Album Review
The Mess Hall’s new album, For The Birds was sent to me a bit ago, and since I’ve been a huge fan of their work for several years, I was really stoked to finally get my hands on it. I first heard about them when they were opening for Kings of Leon and The Strokes. Since I dug both those groups at the time, I decided to do a little research on the unfamiliar opening band. I was very happy with the results. The Mess Hall are a two-piece consisting of Jed Kurzel (vocals/guitar) and Cec Condon (drums/vocals). If you’re a garage rock band, influenced by poor blues-playing old guys from Mississippi, there’s a really good chance I’m going to like your product. It’s not often that The Mess Hall plays in the states, so I felt lucky to have opportunity to see them at Mr. Small’s Theatre in Pittsburgh a few years ago. Great show, the energy level between these two guys was intense. Unfortunatley, I don’t think they’ve been back here much since. They have a huge following back home in Australia and hopefully (with the release of their new album that came out last Friday) their popularity spills over into the U.S.
When I received For The Birds the first thing I did of course was pop it in my computer and pressed play. Right away they hit me with the sound I was hoping for. When you invest your time in a band, an individual or anything, you tend to have high expectations. You expect progression but at the same time you demand the comforting feel that you’ve grown to appreciate. After listening to the first two songs, I made the mistake of going ‘medley style’ and skipping through each track after about 30 seconds. I was confused; left wondering where the crunching guitar riffs had gone; where Cec’s bad-ass drum assaults ventured off to. Well, I definitely jumped the gun. It was the equivalent to opening up two awesome presents on Christmas and then just ripping a small piece of wrapping paper off on the last eight, without truly grasping what was inside. In my defense, I only had about ten minutes of free time when I got it, but gave it my complete attention later on in the evening.
After the full listen, I realized that their unique sound had progressed. Many of their tunes start off sounding pretty minimalist, which is very deceiving if your opinion of the full song is based on that (like a lot of people do when initially hearing a band). Their first single “Bell”, which was released before the album, was one of the few songs that hit you where it counts from the get go. Hence, that’s what I was kind of expecting. The song reminds me of Soul Coughing and they do mention ’soul’ in the refrain. Although I just assume it’s a coincidence. Most of the other songs start off with a simple beat, having faithfully stuck around for a more thorough second listen, I experienced the layering of instruments and riffs leading to a welcomed climax. Jed and Cec expanded on their already popular use of a build up. A great example from a past record is “Pulse”, which starts out with a pulsating beat, but eventually leads you to an all out musical invasion on your ears. On this new album, the song “Bare” develops in the same way and proves that they don’t mind holding back the nuts of the song, putting emphasis on the lyrics during the meat of the piece. As the lyrics progress, the music progresses on this album, often culminating with Jed singing of realization and his guitar firmly dotting the i’s with a no holds barred jam. A handful of the songs conclude with some sort of epiphany which is sometimes complimented by a Jerry Lee Lewis-esque piano explosion. This album leaves me thinking that worrying about the little things may be for the birds, since you can always find a bright side in life. The LP is available on iTunes for your listening pleasure.
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