Broadfield Marchers

A solid addition to the already stellar Rainbow Quartz galaxy of artists, Louisville, Kentucky’s Broadfield Marchers have masterfully melded the classic sounds of the Byrds, Zombies and Big Star with such latter-day signposts as REM, Let’s Active and Guided by Voices, in the process creating a refreshingly lo-fi, melodic mini-masterpiece for the huddled masses. By cramming 19 songs into just over 42 minutes, Broadfield Marchers (brothers Mark and Dustin Zdobylak, aided by drummer Justin Carter) have mastered the seemingly lost art of leaving the listener hungry for more—far preferred over hammering an otherwise pleasant riff into the ground until fetid and moribund. And on The Inevitable Continuing, the hooks just keep on coming…and going. “Leopards with Empty Claws” offers some nifty Peter Buck-style arpeggiated guitar, while“Panic Imposed” melds Raspberries-esque power chords with Dwight Twilley’s vocal quivers. Only on “Circle Avenue Cig Hag” does the band shift gears ever so slightly, injecting some progressive elements into the largely psyche-pop proceedings. And while the lyrics throughout are largely inscrutable (“A rare sighting seen unconscious/Growing up, don’t wake the bear/Notice good ones, careless and blind,” as just one example), that’s hardly a fatal flaw in this style of melodically psychedelic pop and roll. Rather, creating the proper atmosphere and offering up inescapable melodies are far more critical than is readily accessible wordplay (see, for example, REM, Murmur.)

--Rick Schadelbauer [November 2, 2008]

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