Geoff Geis “Where Have You Been”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(taken from Princess out now on Vanity Projects)

Here comes a genre-crossing playful solo effort from Geoff Geis, frontman behind Pizza! and Big Whup (as well as various experimental incarnations of said bands, including the Avant-Garde Volkpenis). The album brings you in with a simple yet cinematic synth track that evokes a Morricone flute intro, yet removes itself from being taken too seriously with its sarcasm-laced title: “Very Important Stuff.” Geis displays great range on this charming, eclectic album. Mostly relying on simple synthesized beats to communicate a story, he moves into full instrumentation on “Superbowl B4 De-lete,” which is perhaps more recognizable stylistically, but pulls back with the simple heartfelt ballad “Where Have You Been (All My Life)?,” covering fellow Alabama statesman country-soul singer Arthur Alexander. Country elements continue on “The Lonesome Part,” and again on the lighthearted closer, “All These Ways That I Divide My Time,” which feels as though it might be right at home amongst the bluegrass stylings of Bill Monroe or the Foggy Mountain Boys. The interspersing of brief, enchanting instrumentals, some of which place the listener in a futuristic adventure setting, work to give the album the feel of a film soundtrack. Geis also manages to transform a political commentary on Saddam Hussein’s career as a dictator into a catchy party jam. His ability to inspire dancing to a chorus line of  “and they won’t count the bodies” in reference to Hussein’s genocidal massacre of the Kurds is hilariously ingenious.

—Walt! Gorecki