AWmusic

Zelazowa is a four-piece from Philadelphia whose band name actually comes from the birthplace of Frederick Chopin – Zelazowa Wola, Poland. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that these guys have used Chopin as a launching point for their music because it couldn’t be any more different had they decided to write porncore. Bryan (vocals/guitar), Ian (vocals/bass), Kyle (lead guitar), and Terry (drums/backing vocals) have written an engaging album of some thirteen songs that run the gamut from Soundgarden/Pearl Jam guitar licks to Layne Staley/Davey Havock/Cedric Bixler-Zavala vocals and from sheer noise (Today Is Tomorrow, Madama Wrecking Ball) to unexpectedly sumptuous melodies such as you’ll find on Baby Blue.

The opening song, Today Is Tomorrow, is a loud (and this album deserves to be played loud), noise filled Pixies/Alice In Chains tune that put my poor ears in traction after all these weeks of listening to singer/songwriters. It sure cleaned the cobwebs out and after listening to this album over the course of the past week or so I look forward to it’s opening bars. It’s not as strong an opener as I would have like, especially when it is followed by the much stronger, Numbers. This song starts off with a very pretty melody but quickly devolves into a storm of guitar and drums. This song would have been a great opener, where Today Is Tomorrow would have been more conformable with like sounding songs such as Serene, Madama Wrecking Ball and Boneyard Destination. Serene is a fuzzy guitar laden Alice In Chains/Soundgarden tune that should satisfy the head-banger in all of us and I’m sure live it must get the place jumping. And although I really like the song I seemed to gravitate more to the melodic tunes on Elephants On A Mousehunt.

The lyrics are often political in nature, Numbers takes a hard look at the Bush presidency. I did find them hard to hear and understand but I think that has more to do with the crappy earphones I was forced to use while I investigate new ones, my good ones finally giving up the ghost after the dog decided that they looked tasty. But I digress. For me there were some small production problems but again that could be from the crappy headphones since it was produced by Zelazowa with Patrick Himes and Rosemary Haskins of Waterworks Entertainment (Nashville, Tn.) and mastered by Howie Weinberg of the Beastie Boys’ License to Ill, Nirvana’s Nevermind and Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness fame.

Zelazowa is a true DIY band from writing and producing to booking a world tour to garnering air play on over 200 stations to releasing a documentary DVD, What They Want Us to Be, We Can’t Always Be to creating Indioonthemove.com, a website designed to assist musicians in booking venues all over the U.S. and Europe without the aid of a manger, booking agent, record rep, or other industry professional that would charge a fee that most bands could ill afford. This eschewing of record label help stems from the guys need to control their own direction and material as well as a strong sense of identity and impatience. As Bryan says in their bio, “There was no way that we were gonna sit around and wait for the man to show up on our doorstep with a label deal and a golden pen. We made the decision at an early age to do it ourselves, the way we wanted to do it, regardless of what others thought.” And good for them. So far it seems to be working.

You can find more info on the band at the usual places Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and at Reverb Nation. You can buy Elephants In A Mousehunt as well as their other two albums, Rest Easy and Polymorph EP, on iTunes and Amazon. As well you can download four freebies from PureVolume.

Zelazowa – Baby Blue
Zelazowa – Today Is Tomorrow
Zelazowa – Numbers