Perhapst - Perhapst

Genre indie-pop Publisher In Music We Trust Records External Links Perhapst MySpace

Perhapst’s brand new self-titled debut album, Perhapst, is the perfect soundtrack to a long summer evening after work — pour yourself a glass or three of Merlot, put your feet up on the back patio and relax to Perhapst’s smooth music and quirky lyrics. Go ahead and turn the volume up all the way: your neighbors won’t be banging on the door, demanding for you to turn this one down; in fact, they just might stick their heads over the fence and ask where they can get a copy for themselves.

As a band, Perhapst is somewhat of a bastard product of various other unions: the songwriter, primary studio musician, and lead vocalist is John Moen (current drummer for The Decemberists); Moen’s erstwhile bandmate Stephen Malkmus is featured on guitar in some tracks; and the live band itself consists of Chris Funk (also of the Decemberists), Johnathon Drews (of Sunset Valley), and Eric Lovre (of Dharma Bums).

Perhapst’s sound is difficult to pigeon-hole — it’s a crazy quilt of pop, light rock, twangy country elements, blues, and an unmistakable late-60s-British-boy-band sound. For all of that however, Moen has managed to craft a unique collage of pleasing music out of this unlikely smorgasbord.

Take the sixth track on the album, “Caution”: right out of the gate it’s got the harmonica and driving drumbeat sound that gives it a soft pop meets blues sound. However, with its 60s style background harmonies it irresistibly makes the listener think: “oldie.” Then, out of nowhere, the kicky 4/4 tempo shifts to a waltzy ¾ time that sounds more like an early 50’s country ballad. The shifts occur several times, until the song ends with the ¾ time gradually slowing down like a music box in need of rewinding. Overall, the song is a brilliant display of musical confidence and panache.

Or take the album’s second track, “Maryanne.” This song is an unmistakable takeoff of a late 60’s rock ballad. From its chorus — “Maryanne! Maryanne!” — to its “na, na, na, na” background vocals, it’s a pleasant blast from the past: the innocence of yesteryear meets the music of the 21st century.

Moen’s ability to seamlessly join various musical genres into a smooth sounding complete whole is admirable. While the entire album is relaxing and incredibly easy to listen to, his songwriting is anything but formulaic or mainstream: in the album’s third track, “Blue Year,” he almost invisibly grafts a rock-style, riffy, guitar break into the rest of the song, which is dominated by a soft pop/rock sound. Why don’t these two sounds jar on the ear like fingernails on the chalkboard? Because Moen is so skilled at these combinations. Sounds that would normally not tolerate one another on the same CD live together happily within the same track under his guiding hand.

Likewise, Moen’s vocals on this album are exceptional. In the first track, “Quote,” Moen sounds to me like an exceptionally calm Anthony Kiedis (Kiedis on a double dose of tranquilizers for instance); yet in “Aren’t You Glowing,” the eleventh track on the album, Moen sounds like he is channeling John Lennon from the Beatles’ White Album (think “Cry Baby Cry”).

All this talk about the sound of the music and Moen’s vocals shouldn’t detract from the fact that Perhapst’s lyrics are also well under par. Not only do the songs have titles that are pleasingly avant garde—“Hyper Planets,” “Incense Cone,” and (my personal favorite) “Cruel Whisk”—but the words will stand up well to multiple listenings. For instance, “Bornless One,” track ten on the album begins: “Account for my sun’s static/ I thought you ought to know/ Pleasantly satanic/ Communes with cows and crows.” The chorus of the song? “Born of dogs, you changeling/ Your drawings were amazing/ We don’t like the sound of your laughter.” These are certainly not your pop hits lyrics; Perhapst’s music is for the relaxing intellectual and philosophical thinker.

Perhapst is the sort of album you can listen to over and over again and hear something different each time, whether it be unusually interesting musical shifts, unexpectedly odd lyrics, or beautiful vocalizations. Either way, let’s hope Perhapst’s debut album is also not its last.