Townhall

The New Song

Genre: Roots Rock

Next of Kin: The Band, Cody ChesnuTT

Many new bands make claims that their music is completely original. Philadelphia’s Townhall is not like most new bands.

They break conventions about as often as the quintet changes instruments, which is a lot. What really makes Townhall interesting is that they manage to be their own band with a unique, rootsy sound while avoiding futurism and experimentalism.

That contradiction is one of many that makes Townhall stand out. They are ambitious, but not overreaching. Their sound is very mature, but they don’t take themselves too seriously. Their music is diverse, yet it manages to be coherent. And although they’re just a bunch of white guys from Philly, Townhall has some real soul.

Townhall’s first studio album The New Song is drenched in it. From the plaintive “Mama” to the tongue-in-cheek “Master of the Universe” to the trite “Miss Saturday Night,” Townhall delivers every song with style and swagger thanks in large part to charismatic frontman George Stanford.

Although Townhall in a live setting is more of a musical collective, The New Song is Stanford’s show. Singers Nate Skiles and Mark Smidt get brief stints on the microphone on “Mama” and “Chevy,” respectively, but it’s Stanford who dominates, singing lead vocal on 10 of the album’s 12 tracks.

It’s no surprise then that Stanford is singing on The New Song’s best tracks. On the “damn the man” reggae burner “Limousine,” Stanford laments the trappings and troubles of the music industry. He sings “I’m told most gold is just brass polished clean/ because there’s always cash in the limousine,” over a smoking reggae groove by drummer Kevin Pride and guitarist Tim Sonnefeld while Skiles and Smidt lay a floating trumpet line over the top.

The only problem with The New Song is that it almost sounds too good. Gone is the incredible energy and rawness of Townhall’s live shows. The album only features short glimpses into that aspect of Townhall’s world in instrumental interludes that fall between some tracks. They help tie the album together, but they leave the listener longing for a little bit less production and a lot more explosion.

Published on March 31, 2003 at 12:00 pm