Rendered obscure, not quite forgotten

No list here, but a tale from last night's listening.

I've been a Renderers fan for years, inspired by 1998's amazing A Dream of the Sea. To describe it as a perverse cross of Crazy Horse and Sonic Youth sounds like an offensive cliche, but 9 years later, the description still seems vaguely apt. Their earlier records never had quite the same energy or attitude--they often felt a bit mopey and lethargic.

Since they hadn't released anything in 8 years, I was surprised to find a (then) new CD last year. (turns out it was recorded in 2003 and took a few years til release.) The core of the group is husband and wife team Brian & Maryrose Crook. The recent CD, Ghosts of our Vegas Lives, is credited as Maryrose Crook with the Renderers. She writes and sings everything this time, but Brian still turns up on inspired guitar, and Robbie Yates (Dead C, ex-Verlaines) repeats his drum role from A Dream of the Sea. On first listen months back, it left me feeling a bit flat. It's laid-back and lacks the frantic energy that stood out on A Dream of the Sea, so it ended up reminding me of their earlier, overly-restrained albums.

Last night, it resonated with me a lot more. Strangely, the higher-energy songs felt a bit mopey again, but the really slow, fragile ones struck a chord that was hard to miss. It wasn't restraint--the energy of the songs was really defined by their tempo and pacing, not withheld by them. Maryrose Crook's vocals can still bring tears and her songwriting still stands out. Despite the unremarkable recording (a lo-fi sound more rough than charming) and 50 minute running time that's longer than the album needs to be, it's still a pretty strong record.

Nerd-o fact found in Web search: Will Oldham covered the title track "Dream of the Sea" on some record of his.

Soundtrack for this post, in a totally unrelated vein, Wolter Weirbos, "A Demonstration", from X-Caliber, his solo trombone CD from 1996 or so on ICP.