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Record Connection

by Chris DeVille

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Recently Columbus has seen a rash of veteran rock reunions interspersed between exciting new records from the current generation of the hip and talented. With Dead Knowledge, Moviola delivers a little of both.

Moviola, of course, has been plugging along since the mid '90s, when the band cranked out the kind of slanted and enchanted sounds that typified indie rock in those days. So this seventh full-length record is no reunion, but it's the latest step in a narrow bridge from the past, the work of one of the few bands from back then still operating now.

Dead Knowledge is also a showcase for Moviola's graceful maturation, a rich, beautiful collection of understated tunes that demand—and reward—attentive ears. Though the record dabbles in all kinds of sounds, the closest comparison point for this music is The Band, whose influence shines particularly bright in "Rudy," the album's piano-led calling card.

Playful, sophisticated Americana is a far cry from the band's slacker-rock past, and the transformation was both welcome and necessary.

"Over the lifespan of 15 years, the creative arc... it can't be a flatline. It's got to be an arc and a swell," bassist Jerry Dannemiller said over beers at Larry's, just down the street from the band's home base at Used Kids Records.

Used Kids played a central role in the creation of Dead Knowledge, and not just because Jake Housh, Ted Hattemer, Greg Bonnell and Dannemiller have been buying records there for years. After longtime member Scotty Tabachnick departed for Vermont, the remaining members holed up in the shop after hours and began to craft these songs, then spent more than a year recording in the space.

"We usually try to have some kind of practice space that is the studio. So this is the strangest version of that," Housh said.

The band approached every element of the album as an "art project," starting with an open-ended writing and recording process that rejected many previously self-imposed boundaries.

"We're at a point where if we're not doing this for our own enjoyment—we've made so many records that it's just to entertain ourselves now," Housh said. "We're more open-minded than we've ever been, I think, about what's allowed to be done."

That freedom resulted in a record of far-ranging sounds, from the breezy-psych head-bobber "Akron to Oakland" to the a cappella field chant "Tears In a Jar." Before its 49 minutes expire, Dead Knowledge touches on hazy guitar rock, sighing balladry, rootsy sing-alongs and a slew of other sounds.

The band took special care piecing together the record's second half, building a song suite like an American take on Abbey Road.

The "art project" mentality carried over to the packaging. Two hundred hand-pressed copies on Catbird Records will come with a DVD including footage from the recording sessions and several music videos. One of the clips, "Don't I Know," is a humorous tribute to Used Kids.

That shop will host the release party as well, an 8 p.m. get-together featuring opening sets from Brian Harnetty and Parker Paul and DJ sets from members of Necropolis.

Many bands have hosted similar events at Used Kids, but no record has been quite so tied to the space as Dead Knowledge, a collection conceived and birthed within those walls and teeming with the dual spirits of discovery and familiarity that haunt the building's crates and crevices.

May 31st, 2007

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