By: Classical Geek Theatre
Written by: Mouse on April.04.09

Thursday night at The Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock was the launch party for Sterling Andrews photo collection Gooseberries. It was a buzzing affair with writers, photogs, and (of course) musicians from all over Los Angeles attending to celebrate with Andrews, who has shot most all of the relevant bands in town.

I chatted with Sterling Andrews briefly about what’s next. “Another book,” she told me. Andrews was coy with the details, but she’s aiming for an adult-oriented photo story book in the same grounded fantasy style that defines her work.

As for the musical offerings…

Le Switch delivered a spirited soul performance, which is of course no surprise since they are a safe bet for a homerun set every time. Golden Gram (Gram LeBron of Rogue Wave) fared not so well, largely because he was playing solo acoustic songs for a chatty crowd more concerned with the free Red Stripe and Absinthe in the back of the room. I was too exhausted to stay for Afternoons, who had a late start after a power outage fried the monitors.

So as far as I am concerned, the night belonged to the folk-crooning One Trick Pony, who managed to play above the constant din of minglers, in part due to banjo-for-hire Todd McLaughlin being added to the lineup. Randolph Williams III (”Randy” to those who know him) has the silkiest, most soothing voice in town and it is a complete mystery to this writer why some major label hasn’t scooped him up and planted a One Trick Pony flag on the KCRW moon. At one point Williams was so immersed in singing his own words that I felt myself physically moved on the inside.

One Trick Pony

Written by: Mark Givens on Feb.01.2009
One Trick Pony (Randolph Williams III and Jenny Teixeira with Charlene Huang and Josh Solberg) belong to a growing collective of artists who understands the value of carefully chosen words, spare arrangement, and no Caps Lock - as if punctuation matters in all aspects of the sound and the words; music that is conscious of the white space around the sound and between the notes; the echos behind and beneath every sound in the song; the incidental noises that pass unnoticed - like a radio left on in the other room, or a conversation in the next booth.

The occasional chainsaw riffs are not coming for you but rather find themselves dismembering someone standing behind you. The drums have the clutter-free hardwood floor sound that resonates perfectly with the sweeping strings and voices that occasionally rise up to fill the space momentarily. It’s heavy, not like an In-N-Out Vanilla Shake but like dense space.

Their new album is called “Full of Life” and it’s wonderful. The songs are airy and infectious, with moody undertones and a complexity that belies the sparse and open landscape they describe and create.

Noting the musical pedigree upon which these songs are built, one can reference Jackson Browne’s guitar from “These Days” by Nico in “Loose Talk”, the honesty, mood, and song length of Diskothi-Q’s “Supersqualor” in “A Whale’s Death”, The Monochrome Set’s peppiness in “Let It Go”, and The Blank Tapes wide-open production of “Landfair” in “Full of Life” (or is that Eels?). The overall effect is a pleasant one, uniquely their own but similarly shared with the likes of So Many Wizards, The Blank Tapes, John Thill, and Tinyfolk.

One Trick Pony is a member of the Central Second Colective, a group that also includes Death to Anders, The Transmissions, The Happy Hollows, Die Rockers Die, and The Henry Clay People.

Contact One Trick Pony via their MySpace page, through FaceBook, or directly on their web site.

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