Player 2

Draw Tippy

Independent release, 2013

http://www.drawtippy.net

REVIEW BY: Jason Warburg

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 05/03/2013

It’s important to have a sound. You can get a long way on attitude and/or talent, but they have to be feeding into something. Your sound is the code that unlocks your music for the listener.

Draw Tippy, the winking stage name employed by one-man band Dave Pachence and his instrumental armory, has a sound, and I’m not sure anyone else on the planet shares it. We’re talking ’80s snyth-driven power-pop paired with ’90s/naughties punk-pop vocals. The combination of clever electro-kitsch with rich harmonics and a splash of punk attitude makes for a frothy and utterly unique blend of musical ingredients. DT’s original self-titled disc captured my imagination in 2004, and its nine-years-later follow-up Player 2 does much the same.

To get a sense of what’s being accomplished here, though, first you must understand: in general, I hate ’80s-era synth music… but I don’t hate this. There’s just something about the juxtaposition of Pachence’s almost self-mocking use of retro synth tones with his cheeky lyrics and vocals that turns the equation inside out. Turning cheese into gold—that’s some serious musical alchemy.

The album opens with a tongue-in-cheek revolutionary anthem, “The Great Casio Uprising,” in which Pachence exhorts his people to “Rally round and show this town / Our presets will not be ignored.” The edge of wiseass sarcasm in the vocals and lyrics completely upends the classic synth music attitude of detachment, taking that cold feel and fuel-injecting it with snarky sass.my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250

“Frankly” takes on a favorite target of Pachence’s biting lyrics: “You’re so designer, but you dress like you’ve been in a war / You find your fashions in the window of the dollar store.” The man has a gift for deconstructing poseurs and hipsters, and living in New York obviously offers him plenty of material…  

“Your Worst” is a sweet love song that leads into the most jarring note on the album, a cover of the mid-’80s hit “Your Love” by The Outfield, employing some of the cheesiest analog synth tones imaginable. Is it meant sarcastically, or as a genuine homage? Only Pachence knows for sure. (Interestingly, the song has been covered in numerous different styles over the years—punk, reggae, trance, hard rock—and more recently in concert by the likes of Bon Iver and the Decembrists. Clearly I’ve missed something here, though I’m not sure what…!)

“Valkyrie 1” is a love song to a space station, sung by the lonely astronaut inhabiting it; imagine HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey as a flirty girl instead of a disembodied villain. (It takes a special kind of imagination to pull this sort of thing off, and Pachence is just the guy to do it.) Taking things a step farther, the kitsch factor reaches its absolute apex with “Tokyo,” as Pachence serenades a traveler on the way to Japan with a synthesized “Domo arigato Tokyo” before hitting you with a punky double-time beat and dirty guitars.

“Cool Kids” features one of the album’s better lines: “The cool kids never win, they just regret what could have been,” while the power-poppy “Laurie Never Lies” deploys beefy guitars to deliver a solid hook. “The Brokens” is a novelty tune that doesn’t quite click, a sort of ’80s sitcom parody with a dark edge (though it’s hard to dislike any lyric that uses the word “moxie”).

Romantic shut-out-the-world tune “Fate Won’t Fail Us Now” opens with a big synth hook that summons the ghosts of the Human League; then “Famous Soon” turns up the snark once more, a frothy blast of delusional egotism (“Who wants to be in a starving indie band?... Keep your integrity / Give me celebrity”). Closer “David” is an interesting number, marrying Pachence’s nasal, punky delivery with a seemingly sincere ballad that feels like a motivational speech he might have given to himself. It’s an interesting contrast of style and content and shows a different side of Pachence.

Draw Tippy is one of those unique confections that I would expect most people to have a visceral reaction to on first listen. Regardless of which way you fall, do yourself a favor and give Player 2 a second and third listen. There’s a lot more to these tunes than just a sound, although the sound is one that stands out from its surroundings like a neon sign in the dark night sky.

Rating: B+

User Rating: Not Yet Rated


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