By Mark Kirby, MusicDish e-Journal
Whatever one could say about Hills Rolling, the moniker of one-man
band Trey McGriff, you can't accuse him of having shallow roots. On
his myspace page he lists as influences about one hundred or so bands
and musicians. There are old schoolers (Otis Redding, The Beatles,
Pink Floyd), new schoolers ( The Killers, My Morning Jacket), tweeners
(Nirvana, Dinosaur, Jr.) electro types (The Cure, Depeche Mode) and
eclecticians like him (Beastie Boys, Beck). No doubt this is in part a
smart-ass commentary on the "what are your influences" question. It is
also a list of people he has most likely listened to and is another
way of saying that all the music he has heard, or for that matter,
everything he has been through, is recorded by the brain, swished
around by time, and reflected in his songs. Loves, hates, sounds,
tastes, it's all in your head. Musically and lyrically, this message
comes through loud and clear on his CD Sweet Tea.
With all this in his musical blender, he has come up with a record
that is like a meal with different foods, different flavors, and quite
tasty. Sweet Tea is not an album with a theme or unified sound per
say, but the strength of the songs and the individualism of his voice
and musical palette steers the record clear of being a hodgepodge of
stuff. He is not intellectually and intentionally going from style to
style as if he's searching for an identity, or flailing about hoping
to catch the listener's ear. The songs are well-crafted and come from
his heart, making the music distinctly and honestly Hills Rolling. Not
unlike a jazz artist who expresses his individual voice on an album by
having a ballad, swing numbers, a blues and a song with a Latin
flavor.
"Crazie" opens the record with a catchy bit of vintage hard rock that
is the '08 answer to "Rock and Roll Hootchie Coo" by Rick Derringer.
The macho stance of that song is replaced by the simple wonder of
gettin' down with a beautiful girl that's made him so crazy that "I
don't know what to do / I'm gettin' dizzy I'm shakin' in my shoes."
The music works well with the song, alternating between hard bar chord
guitar licks and trippy tremolo/vibrato-soaked guitar leads. His pop
sensibility keeps everything tight, short and sweet like the tea. Hip
hop drums open "Not Again", then the song gives way to the kind of
acoustic/electric guitar-based rock that never goes out of style.
Percussion and a home boy chorus give the song a party feel despite
the grimness of the song's slice of life lyrics: "I just live day to
day / barely keepin' my head above the water / Not again got all these
feelings trapped inside me / Not again can't pay the bills I think I'm
sinking your way . . . I'm so lonely / some day / we'll ride the waves
into the sun."
This cut deftly combines a pleasant tune with grimness, humor, and
hope all rolled into one. "Watching The Waves" is psychedelic rock by
way of the Cure, with a beer soaked college kid trippin' on playing
some simple guitar chords and having a moment with his friends. The
harmonica captures the feeling of timeless, be-here-now grooviness
that puts you right there on the beach, as McGriff chants "Standing in
the ocean watching the waves roll by, roll by."
One of McGriff's other musical projects is in the mode of experimental
electronica and is called SomeWhere OutHere. The song "Middle of
Nowhere" hints in this direction. Starting with an electronic drum
pulse and droning bass with a spacey guitar riff ala New Order, this
piece is a soundtrack to doing . . . whatever. Weird sounds come in
and out of focus as the interlocking licks and drum beat march on.
Whereas these elements might seem abstract on another record, here the
music maintains a grassroots, funky, down home feeling.
In her October 2007 article in the New Yorker, author Sasha Frere-
Jones, the best music writer around I must add, wrote that, unlike
rock from the 50's through the 80's, twenty-first century indie rock
is totally devoid of the blues and soul, the root-feeding soil of so
much great music. This leaves indie rock and its offshoots, in his
words, "full of lassitude and monotony." No problem with that here.
Hills Rolling McGriff is from Georgia or thereabouts, so the blues,
soul and country are in his blood. Perhaps that is what helps blend
the musical stew he's cookin' up on Sweet Tea. This CD is further
proof that while commercial rock and pop are rotting and twisting in
the wind, these are great days for music down here where just us folks
are living.
http://www.myspace.com/hillsrolling
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