Transit of Venus
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The Trolleyvox Present The Karaoke Meltdowns - 4.5 Stars of 5 Review - November, 2006 |
by Stewart Mason |
The third album by Philadelphia's the Trolleyvox (now basically down to singer Beth Filla and guitarist-songwriter Andrew Chalfen, plus a rotating cast of guests) is a huge leap beyond their already impressive earlier work. The album kicks off with the impassioned call to arms "Just You Wait," a textbook example of how to write a politically charged pop song without preachy name-calling. The urgency of that two-minute opening blast seems to energize the rest of the album, because unlike the relatively mellow jangle pop of 2003's Leap of Folly, The Trolleyvox Present the Karaoke Meltdowns has a full-on rock & roll kick even on mid-tempo tracks like the harmony-heavy "I Know That You're High." Even the handful of acoustic tunes, including the lovely "Deep Blue Central" (which makes surprisingly effective use of a field recording of a horse and carriage for its rhythm track), sound more direct and engaged. Matching a uniformly excellent set of tunes to Filla's alluring vocals — as always, she's the best thing about the band — The Trolleyvox Present the Karaoke Meltdowns is the sound of a group ready to make an impact beyond the tiny power pop scene. It might work, too: the not-at-all-subtle get out the vote video for "Just You Wait" was a YouTube favorite passed around the left-leaning blogs just prior to the 2006 mid-term elections. Go to All Music Review of The Trolleyvox Present The Karaoke Meltdowns |
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REVIEW
Music Review: The Trolleyvox - The Trolleyvox Present the Karaoke Meltdowns
Written by Jeff Martin
Published January 02, 2007
Perhaps the best -- and worst — thing anyone could say in describing the Trolleyvox is that they sound like the New Pornographers with a boost of girl power. This isn't to say that the Philadelphia-based power-poppers are a band content with riding the rock coattails of other groups, nor is it to cast the growing shadow of Neko Case onto Trolleyvox lead singer Beth Filla.
Indeed, the similarities suggest that the Trolleyvox are a band poised to make the jump from relatively unnoticed underground rockers to... well, appreciated underground rockers. Their newest release, The Trolleyvox Present the Karaoke Meltdowns, is certainly a step in the right direction.
The album begins by lulling you into a false set of expectations as a short preamble echoes the tempo and tonality of the band's 2003 album Leap of Folly, but quickly puts the guitars to work with the rollicking "Just You Wait," a refreshing reminder that political messages can still come in fun packages. With Filla's warm, friendly voice and Andrew Chalfen's smart lyrics and guitar, the song ranks up with Rilo Kiley's "It's a Hit" in terms of political pop perfection. The preamble's arrangement returns, by the way, towards the end of the album in the amped-up "Whisper Down the Lane."
Throughout the album, even in slower numbers like "Twilight Hotel," the Trolleyvox maintain a kind of measured chaos. The mid-tempo, harmony-heavy "I Know That You're High" makes tonal references to the 60's power-pop bands that influenced the Trolleyvox and their contemporaries. Meanwhile, "Deep Blue Central" is a gorgeously stripped-down track that uses nothing but acoustic guitar and a horse-drawn carriage sound effect beneath Filla's stunning vocals.
The Trolleyvox Present the Karaoke Meltdowns is one of those albums that you'll listen to and want to dance around to like an idiot. Mixing melancholy and freak-out rock like a fine cocktail, it is, without a doubt, an album you don't want to miss.
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Jeff Martin is the online journalist behind Movie Hawk, a pop culture review. By day, he's a writer for the public relations office at a prominent university in Philadelphia.
Amplifier Magazine –
November/December 2006
The Trolleyvox
The Karaoke Meltdowns
Transit of Venus
The Trolleyvox have been working this potent groove of Beth Filla’s gorgeously earthy vocals and Andrew Chalfen’s sinewy guitar and haunting songcraft for the better part of a decade. The band’s new album and third release overall, Karaoke Meltdowns, is a lush, melancholy and muscular display of the quartet’s considerable and diverse talents and the logical extension of their first two acclaimed releases, 1999’s Ephemera for the Future and 2003’s Leap of Folly. The combination of Filla’s breathy gypsy vocal vibe and Chalfen’s dark and moody contemporary classicism is like a brilliantly low-key blend of Aimee Mann fronting Guided by Voices (“Onion is Missing”), the (not so) Innocence Mission (“I Know That You’re High”) and (way more than) 10,000 Maniacs (“I Am Annabelle”). The Trolleyvox don’t do anything that is the slightest bit obvious, which means the first few listens float by pleasantly enough without much notice. Then you’ll start thinking of Trolleyvox songs when you’re listening to something else; that’s when you’ll realize how deeply they’ve hooked you. - Brian Baker
December 21, 2006 - M.J. Fine
The Trolleyvox just keeps getting better. The musical chemistry between singer Beth Filla and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Chalfen has been obvious since the outset, but seven years down the line, they've made their best record yet.
"The Karaoke Meltdowns," released recently, shimmers with sweet melodies and pretty power-pop guitar. Previous outings had charms of their own, but the Philly group's lucky third release is more confident, more varied and more engaging.
After a light instrumental preamble, "Just You Wait" sets the album in motion. It's the Trolleyvox's hardest rocking song, and with lines like "Drown the flames of the folly crusade/With the tears of the fire brigade/And end this cynical reign," it's their most topical, too.
The lyrical references to the current administration, here and in "Baby You Were Lied To," are vague enough to leave a Bush booster's mind untroubled, but the video for "Just You Wait" illustrates the point with a barrage of TV clips that highlight the link between brain-numbing entertainment and the government's less benign idea of theater.
Easing Up a Bit
Most of the songs are more relaxed. A horse and carriage provide an ideal rhythm track for "Deep Blue Central," while the piano-driven stand-out "Twilight Hotel" manages to be both stately and understated.
Despite the occasional head-scratching phrase ("My last stop artichoke calico" comes to mind), Filla's at her wistful, woozy best on "I Know That You're High," and it's refreshing to hear her developing an assertive streak on "I Am Annabelle" and the chiming "Onion Is Missing."
Chalfen usually has his hands full -- he's credited with playing piano, guitar and occasional bass, along with the less common rock props of tangerine and eggs -- but he steps up to the mike with a poetic lead on "Joyride," and his husky voice is a pleasant change of pace.
The partnership between Chalfen and Filla is what makes the Trolleyvox hum, but having a tight rhythm section can really help when you're trying to win over a noisy bar crowd.
The Big Takeover
The Trolleyvox
The Karaoke Meltdowns
(Transit Of Venus)
Issue #59 – December 2006
by Neal Agneta
Believe the hype! Commandeered by vocalist Beth Filla, The Trolleyvox are worthy of the bevy of critical praise bestowed upon them. Despite its overriding premise of pure and sometimes powerful pop, Karaoke does its fair share of hop scotching. From the would-be arena rocker “Just You Wait” that Robert Pollard should have dreamed up a decade ago, to the pastoral jangle and strum of “Joyride,” and twice around the bend to the offbeat, Mitch Easter-esque flair that infiltrates “I am Annabelle,” and “Onion Is Missing,” there’s an unmistakable classicist pop bent emanating from every pore of this LP. Cosmetically, Karaoke’s biggest stumbling block is its lack of continuity with pregnant pauses between tracks and uncoordinated segues that are challenging to tolerate, even though the music itself is a pleasure. (www.transitofvenusmusic.com)
Power pop is rarely as deep or dexterously wrought as that heard on "The Karaoke Meltdowns," the latest long-player by Philadelphia-based Trolleyvox.
Honed-to-perfection tunes are ear-grabbing in a jangly guitar/piano way, with the haunting vocals of Beth Filla adding flower-power allure. And just beneath the surface of Andrew Chalfen's abstract lyrics lies a healthy dose of social criticism.
Chalfen is one of the city's most enduring and worthy music crafters, first recognized in the late 1980s/early '90s band the Wishniaks. Get on track for the group's homecoming/album-release show with Matt Keating & the Clear Channel 5, and J. Roddy Walston & the Business.
- Jonathan Takiff - http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/living/16192086.htm
I have to say, I love that album title. This latest offering from the Trolleyvox (their 3rd, but 1st for new Philly label TOV) opens with a short, sweet piece of jangle ("preamble") that guitarist Andrew Chalfen seems to have an endless supply of, before blasting off into the indie-guitar / power-pop bliss that is "Just You Wait." In short, it rips. Produced by Chalfen and esteemed engineer / mastermind Adam Lasus, the Trolleyvox sound bigger and better than ever, and what's cool is that they don't sacrifice anything for it. The production is clear and everything sounds great - especially Beth Filla's sultry voice, Ken Buono's kick-ass drums and Chalfen's now-patented guitar sound. They can go 'quiet-style' and pull out the tear-jerkers as well; a perfect example being one of my favorites of the record, entitled "Pale Star Land Line," which is simply, undeniably beautiful. After a bit of a vacation, the TVox are back in full force - lucky for us. You should check this record out pronto. – Jeremy Grites
Philadelphia CityPaper
MUSIC . Critics' Lists.
Best of 2006
Jan 4, 2007
The Trolleyvox, a band of Philly mainstays now three albums into their power pop run, cut achingly sweet power pop with muscle and intelligence. They take their gauzy, hazy sound to the next level on this third full-length, backing Beth Filla’s smoky-pure voice with soft jangle and taut strums. Andrew Chalfen encases his songs in dreamy, reverberating textures, letting notes melt one into another and harmonies drift towards the skies. Still, there are hard rhythms and steady beats under these cotton candy drifts, a solid rock-centric core that keeps cuts like “I Am Annabelle” from over-sweetness. There’s even a sharp political track: the short, drum-paced “Just You Wait” that castigates oil men, polluters and hypocritics to a classic college rock guitar riff. The best by cut by far, though, is hinted at in the brief intro “Preamble”, then allowed to stretch out in all its limpid gorgeousness three songs later. “I know that you’re hi-i-i-i-gh,” croons Filla, against a shimmery bed of guitars, a summer song epiphany that goes straight to your limbic system and stays there. It’s a perfect song ... airy and infectious and utterly resistant to analysis, but if the Trolleyvox never makes another album, “I Know That You’re High,” will do just fine as a legacy. [Amazon
, Insound, Amazon UK
]
—Jennifer Kelly 2:03 am - 1/26/2007
Permalink - http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/the-trolleyvox-present-the-karaoke-meltdowns/
By Chris Estey.
Aquarius (January 20 - February 18)
The Trolleyvox present The Karaoke Meltdown by The Trolleyvox is perfect Aquarius music for beginning the new year. Cleanly splashing like the stream of water the sign of Aquarius is based on, this is veteran female-charged power pop that purely refreshes. You may be feeling a strong sense of déjà vu this time around, as utopian urges you have are reflected in the technological progress made around you. The intelligent optimism and sharp insights of songwriter-guitarist Andrew Chalfen and the pagan-powered vocals of Beth Filla make this a sexier way to evolve. Filla's vocals are almost too perfect, it's like she's there in her Philadelphia-pad room with you, seductively lighting incense and candles, and putting something in your drink as you bob your head to the tunes. There is a health and wide-open sheen to songs like "Stoplight Roses" and "I Know That You're High" that remind one of the early 90s (when alternative rock seemed capable of anything) while touching on traces of 60s psychedelic rompers from some acid trip movie. Not heavy in any direction, producer Adam Lasus (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) records his finest band yet.
Aquarius Added Vice For The New Year: As the Age of Aquarius is about life-improving inventions, feel free to do more five finger discounts at Radio Shack.
http://www.threeimaginarygirls.com/astropop07janfeb.asp
Only becoming aware of his lengthy resume after the fact, we first heard the work of Trolleyvox songwriter and guitarist Andrew Chalfen when he was a sideman with Philadelphia-based indie stalwart Joey Sweeney in the mid-'90s. In this role he added piano to Mr. Sweeney's excellent debut solo EP Heartache Baseball and performed with a short-lived Sweeney lineup that included Alex Kemp and Phoebe Summersquash of Small Factory/Godrays. That was a long time ago. Sometime during the intervening years we moved away from Philly and forgot about Mr Chalfen and what he might be up to. That is, until we caught wind this past July that Chalfen would be releasing a third full-length for his long-running guitar pop project The Trolleyvox. The set, entitled The Trolleyvox Present The Karaoke Meltdowns, packs equal parts folk-rock and power pop into a hook-filled baker's dozen compelling tracks.
Front and center in the Trolleyvox sound is Chalfen's dense guitar work and singer Beth Filla's bell-clear vocals. "I Am Annabelle" is ushered in with a Townshend-ian lick before striking jaunty poses across an understated, syncopated verse and chorus; "Deep Blue Central" also has an acoustic The Who feel. "I Know That You're High" touts a soft attack that knowingly winks in the directon of The Byrds. The set skids a bit with the feather-light strummer "Twilight Hotel," but is instantly redeemed by the infectious album highlight "Joyride." It's not all classic rock influence -- fans of the aforementioned Small Factory and acts like Miracle Legion will find a lot to like among these 13 tracks. The Trolleyvox Present The Karaoke Meltdowns streets Oct. 17 on the Transit Of Venus label. Additionally, Transit Of Venus plans to release a Trolleyvox double EP next spring.
The third disc from Philly indie-pop perfectionists The Trolleyvox receives the unwieldy, yet still catchy title The Trolleyvox Present The Karaoke Meltdowns (Transit of Venus). It's an appropriate moniker for an album that is arguably their most assured and diverse yet. Songs such as "I Am Annabelle" and "Stoplight Roses" show that the group — led by guitarist/songwriter Andrew Chalfen and singer Beth Filla — is still tops at wedding winsome melodies to big-beat drum tumbles. And "Deep Blue Central" (which uses the sound of horses trotting in Old City as a rhythm bed), "Twilight Hotel" and "Pale Star Land Line" count among their most beguiling ballads. No mere pop idyllists, the band gets their political ire on with "Baby You Were Lied To" and "Just You Wait." (The latter makes its point doubly clear with a video available on the band's MySpace page.) With Chalfen and Filla getting help from collaborators familiar (Adam Lasus, Bret Tobias, Scott Rogers) and new (Brian McTear, Amy Morrissey, Owen Biddle), The Karaoke Meltdowns proves to be a most delectable kind of night out.
Philly Weekly - Trolleyvox
Fri., Oct. 20, 9pm. $8. With BC Camplight + Novenas. North Star, 27th and Poplar sts. 215.684.0808. www.northstarbar.com
It takes only a few spins to realize the genius of the new Trolleyvox album lies not in its sparkling sheen but in the heady psychedelic wordplay beneath. Lines like “bodyguards for bottle doppelgangers” sit alongside biting mentions of dirty bombs and selling out to oilmen—behavior summed up as “our hypocrite waltz.” It’s easy to miss that stuff while taking in Andrew Chalfen’s hooky power-pop workouts and Beth Filla’s sugary singing, but it’s the fervor and color of the lyrics that make The Trolleyvox Present the Karaoke Meltdowns this Philly institution’s best showing yet. (Doug Wallen)
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=13210
The Trolleyvox- The Trolleyvox Present the Karaoke Meltdowns (Transit of Venus)
If you like your power pop sweet and shiny and more than a little bit silly, the Trolleyvox is the band for you. The Philadelphia-based quartet, whose ranks have swelled and contracted over the group’s decade-long career, delivers hooky, anthemic, mildly eccentric guitar rock dosed with girl-group vocals, nonsensical lyrics, and oddball instrumentation (one song, “Deep Blue Central,” incorporates the clomping of a horse’s hooves on pavement). It’s a combination that’s bound to elicit comparisons to the fearsomely great New Pornographers, which is unfortunate, because the Trolleyvox can’t help but come up short: Guitarist/songwriter Andrew Chalfen doesn’t have A.C. Newman’s genius for melody, and singer Beth Filla lacks Neko Case’s prodigious, pitch-perfect range. A more realistic, if obscure, touchstone might be Let’s Active, Mitch Easter’s whimsical ’80s-era jangle-pop outfit, to which the Trolleyvox once paid tribute with a cover of “Crows on a Phone Line.”
All quibbling aside, there’s plenty to admire on the Trolleyvox’s third full-length, the rather awkwardly titled The Trolleyvox Present the Karaoke Meltdowns. Filla’s voice has a bright insouciance that makes Chalfen’s often impenetrable lyrics (“Licorice and Dirty Bomb/ Are keeping score and flirt in semaphore”) seem more accessible, and, despite its tendency to go flat on the low notes, it’s exceedingly pleasant, especially on the livelier numbers. Chalfen’s fretwork sparkles on such cuts as “Onion Is Missing,” which boasts a bent little hook reminiscent of Television and a stunning psychedelic coda, and “Whisper Down the Lane,” which mixes intricate finger-picking with backwards piano. At times the midtempo ballads drag a bit, but fizzy concoctions such as “I Am Annabelle” and “I Know That You’re High” produce a sugar rush so intoxicating that you just might welcome the brief reprieve from catchiness.
http://www.illinoistimes.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A5951
Philebrity Blog – October 20th, 2006
http://www.philebrity.com/2006/10/20/talk-the-talk-andrew-chalfen-of-the-trolleyvox/
By Joey Sweeney
Talk The Talk: Andrew Chalfen of The Trolleyvox
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2006 Transit of Venus™ |
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Andrew Chalfen (pictured at far right) was laying the groundwork for this city’s grand indie-rock kingdom when you were in short pants, bub, and he still kinda looks like he’s 17. Not bad, right? In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Chalfen was the brains behind the late, great Wishniaks — one of the bands that the Khyber cut its teeth on back in the day, when Second Street wan’t even a gleam in South Jersey’s eye. (Full disclosure: Yours truly, Joey Sweeney, roadied for the Wishniaks back in the day, before convincing Chalfen to join me in my own musical endeavors through 1995.) In the meantime, Chalfen has played with loads of folks, but his standing “solo” project has been