From the opening strains of Thee Shams’ new disc, “Sign the Line,” it’s obvious there’s a disturbance in the force of this unruly garage-rock powerhouse.
Thee Shams made their name via relentless touring, a wicked Fat Possum sophomore release and dirty, Stones-worshiping chords sprung from Cincinnati rehearsal spaces, not Motor City warehouses.
But with their third record, Thee Shams have written an alleyway symphony of pressure-washed cement and refurbished brick. The sounds are amazingly clear and polished – which isn’t to say they always sound amazing – and walk the curious, swerving line between garage and Brit pop.
“We’ve just grown up,” said Zach Gabbard, who brings his band to Denver tonight with a show at Bender’s Tavern. “Bands grow and progress into what they’ll eventually become. And we’re becoming that now.”
If it sounds rather generic, it’s anything but.
Thee Shams’ second record, “Please Yourself,” was a neo-’60s romp that barely stopped to breathe. Like any garage product produced after 1973, it’s inherently redundant to a certain point. What it lacked in focus, it made up in sheer intensity and beery sweat. The record didn’t quite live up to the band’s live shows, which sound like massive instrumental orgies set against Gabbard’s tortured voice, but “Please Yourself” was still an honest stomp of a record, the kind of music you envision when a band says it recorded something live and in one take.
“Before we just went in and rocked it out raw and did it real primal,” Gabbard said. “All the other records were half-(done), and we cut all the corners that we could. (With ‘Sign the Line’) we just went for it. Now we have a full-time keyboard player and more harmonies. We just worked with the music a lot more this time.
“The labels have always paid for the recordings, but with this one, we could go back as many times as we wanted to because we were recording at home in Cincinnati and not out of town somewhere.”
The difference is immeasurable.
The record kicks off with “Not Gonna Make It,” and immediately the imprint of producer (and ex-Afghan Whigs bassist) John Curley smacks the listener. There’s a strange sheen to the music, and instead of the sandpaper of previous recordings, this one is satin – with a sandpaper print. Thee Shams’ homages to the Beatles, “Survive” and “Everflowing Tune,” are simple, pretty little ditties Paul would approve of. “No Trust Fund Blues” is the kind of song that will leave Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis wishing they wrote and sang it, respectively.
“Lonely One” has Zach channeling the late Ray Charles with surprising ability and soul. But when Thee Shams go into dirge-garage mode, once the bread and butter of their live shows, with tracks like “Love Grows & Grows” and “How I Feel,” the attitude is the same but some of the flavor is lost. The music has lost the original gritty aesthetics that first drew in a cult fan base, but is gaining a depth that straddles garage and Brit pop, plus alt-country and unabashed pop.
“We wanted to make a record that was that way, a pretty-sounding record,” Gabbard said, noting that his band’s shows are still loud, messy and plagued with feedback. “We wanted to prove ourselves in a way that we hadn’t before. The group’s been together for five years, and this is the third record, so it was time for a change.”
Thee Shams are Cincinnati through and through, and it’s not only their neo-’60s music that resembles their neighbors in The Greenhornes and the Heartless Bastards. All three bands have serious work ethics centered on the power of touring, a philosophy that is crucial to launching a city’s local music scene.
“To sell records you gotta go on the road,” Gabbard said. “There have always been groups in Cincinnati who’ve gone on to make records and tour a lot – The Afghan Whigs and the (Expletive) Ponys. Everyone has a good work ethic. And everyone goes for it. Everyone has learned from everyone else’s examples, and they know that you have to go on tour. When you’re touring, you don’t make any money – you’re just spending it. But it doesn’t matter. You do it anyway.
“You also have to make sure you get into all these college radio stations, because nobody else is going to play you. Radio’s not like it used to be. But there are lots of good bands in Cincinnati, lots of good groups, and lots of cool clubs. It’s a cool scene that’s been looked over for a while until all these groups started going on the road.”
One entity that helped Thee Shams tour was the beloved but beleaguered Fat Possum Records, the Oxford, Miss., blues-oriented label that released Thee Shams’ “Please Yourself.” Even though “Sign the Line” was released by Shake It Records, Fat Possum still picked up most of the recording tab and agreed with the band on the move.
“They wanted us to wait until things got better at the label,” Gabbard said, “but we just thought it would be better for us to come out with another record, and then they came around. And Fat Possum still promotes it and sells it like it’s their own release.”
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-820-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
Thee Shams
GARAGE ROCK|Bender’s Tavern; 9 tonight, with the Rok Tots, The Geds and Machine Gun Blues|$10|at the door
5more
COHEED & CAMBRIA The epic-scaled pop-metal of Coheed & Cambria is nothing to be messed with, something the band proves yet again with its brand-new “Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Vol. 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness.” The band brings its music to the Ogden on Friday.
THE EPOXIES/THE SOVIETTES Forget about Against Me!, which is headlining the Gothic on Sunday. But do check out the openers – The Epoxies and their excellent, stylized retro revisionism, and The Soviettes and their unstoppable punk-pop.
THE ROBOT ATE ME! Ryland Bouchard is taking a slight break from the experimental pop that has dominated his previous work. With his new record “Carousel Waltz” – and likely his Sunday gig at the Hi-Dive – he’s looking better, brighter and optimistic.
THE POSIES If you were a power-pop fan in the mid-’90s, then you probably liked the Posies. The seminal act hits the Larimer Lounge on Thursday.
– Ricardo Baca
