By all accounts John Shough is a local hero in Dayton having worked as a producer/engineer at the Cro-Magnon studios and produced albums by a huge number of local bands including Guided By Voices and The Breeders. Meanwhile, for a number of years he has quietly worked after hours and put together a colossal number of his own songs. Mainly working solo and playing all the instruments himself but occasionally teaming up with musical buddies, the result is that twenty of those songs have been brought together to create Ultra Vega.
I guess the brilliance of all of this is how Shough takes the sum of his influences and lets them play out across the songs. There are plenty of sixties psychedelic sounds mixed into the groove and late Beatles loom large sonically and melody wise. Bands like Big Star and Cheap Trick come to mind as the album progresses but John Shough is still his own man so there's enough originality to make this a fresh experience. There's no way that this is one of those "heard it all before" albums but instead, it's a feast of indie attitude songs.
Hard to pick favorites but I'm going to try. "Hens Gone Wrong" is a lyrically and musical quirky acoustic driven track which reminded me a little of something that They Might Be Giants might do whilst "Gone Fishing" shines with a retro-pop sensibility. "So Very" glides along with an unforgettable melody and classic descending chord pattern which has driven a hundred classic pop rock songs.
It's like he sucked into his soul a thousand incredible classic rock and pop songs and by osmosis they have become a part of his creative being. Echoes of Lennon and the ghost of late British music that so influenced nineties Britpop float around in the background as Shough lets loose with his lo-fi pop and rock. It's not an album that will knock you over with its pulsating energy or shiny production but instead slowly and deliberately these eclectic songs slip into your consciousness and win the argument.
Apparently there are plenty more songs where these come from and other releases planned in the future and I can't wait.
4 tocks
Similar sounding releases
1994RadioheadMy Iron Lung
1999Michael LewisDig for the Light
2005Jesse SprinkleUnnoticed
2002The BillionsNever Felt This Way Before
2002ColdplayA Rush of Blood to the Head
1998Steve HindalongSkinny
