If you visit the Heroes and Heroines Bandcamp page and push play it is a little like stepping into a 1960's Super 8 movie reel. The almost translucent guitar strains, Farfisa organ and prepubescent sounding vocals sound so purely sweet and harkins back to the Smile period of the Beach Boys. When you hear Pilot on their Garage Demos EP, it could very well be a Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks composition, it is that good. While Wilson and Parks would use full orchestration to realize their vision, Heroes and Heroines push the dramatic with a more spartan sound focusing on clean but punchy guitar rhythms and the almost omnipresent organ. The instrumental Fantastic Force has rock flourishes and an almost tango like break that reminds me of a Crystal Antlers interlude. The song itself has the sweep and scope of a silent action film. The Lion (on Garage Demos) feels like a summer roller coaster ride.
The Two Weeks 7" (digital of vinyl) has a bit bigger, better produced sound than the garage demos and the increased dynamic range fills out the sound nicely. Two Weeks (the song) is about as infectious a song as can be fueled by the vocal melody and organ rhythm. The chorus tempo change- full of drum rolls and heavy down beats works so well. In Busy Bee, Heroes and Heroines composesd a song that tells its story as much with the varied tempos, dramatic fills and down beats than the melodies contained in the music and vocals. Heroes and Heroines (in both their Garage Demos EP and Two Weeks 7" single) display a knack for writing non formulaic songs that can sound pristine and heavy at the same time. Turning their music off is the hardest thing. Oh, well... back to the real world.
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Robb Donker
Heroes and Heroines will be at the Bootleg Theater with Kera and the Lesbians on Oct 1
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