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From YES! Weekly...
S. Burns — Maximum Wage
While
naming yourselves as dwellers of Greensboro’s music underbelly is
certainly a feather in no one’s cap, narco-prog rockers S. Burns
(www.myspace.com/sburns) seem to savor the relative obscurity that
accompanies such residency. With their second album, Maximum Wage, on the horizon, however, they may have to brace for the possibility of a stratified ascension.
While markedly less abrasive that their 2008 debut Meanwhile at the Burn Pile, the songs on Maximum Wage don’t
require repeated listening to foster appreciation. They affect
immediately and relentlessly, even if at only seven tracks in length,
it blurs the line between EP and LP. Opener “Vegan in Furs” kicks off
with a jagged intro by front man Brandon Adams that owes a debt to
James Blood Ulmer, while his vocals fall just short of the shrill wail
of the Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The sprawling “Timpani Belle”
trades between sparse instrumental backdrops and stout aural barrages
over nearly eight minutes. One thing to note about this album is a
rather curious mixing job: Each of the three instrumental and the
single vocal components rarely sound cohesive, yet somehow, it works
well within the context of the material. Although the album lags
somewhat in parts and is bogged down a bit by the overarching sameness
of the guitar sound from one track to the next, this is more than a
promising start to S. Burns’ climb into significance.
69/100