Artist: Kleveland
Label: SAOL Music
Release: 2011
Length: 38:16
Rating: 4/5
Kleveland are probably the dirtiest band in Portland today. Singer and guitarist Stephanie Smith founded them in 2000 on the ruins of her former band Spectors Pump. “Harder ” is Kleveland’s second studio album, following the self-titled debut from 2003. “Harder” came out in the US back in 2009 via In Music We Trust, but since the recently launched European label SAOL Records took the band under its wing, it has reissued the album, so it’s now available in Europe too.
Kleveland are rock n’ roll perverts. They stick to directness, triviality and total studio nakedness. No embellishments, no fiddling around. That no-frills stance hooks up glam rock elements on one side and party-time punk on the other, so the quips about Ramones or New York Dolls aren’t all that damn out of place. So you get the biting punch of bristling rock on one side and melodic correctness (that part comes from Stephanie’s vocal approach) on the other, mixed in just the right measure inside the slightly off-kilter dynamics of bold rock jangle (examples: You Are Not Sorry, Do It Big, Late Boomer, Golden Gloves) . As for Stephanie Smith, you could say her mojo, or just her presence, carries on in Courtney Love’s footsteps and goes head-to-head with her contemporary Juliette Lewis. That hint would be totally out of place if “Harder” were peddling empty songwriting hot air. But what we’ve got here is an album full of rock n’ roll juice and expressive, tangible muscle.
Interestingly, that basic musical direction also flirts with stoner rock, like in the title track Harder, and the lazily grimacing It’s Your Turn doesn’t hide that kind of dabbling either (in the rhythm). A trivial, bizarrely minimalist riff, as if Queens Of The Stone Age had written it back in the Oliveri days. Of course, on first listen your ears barely catch it, because Kleveland’s lead vocals come from Stephanie Smith, which gives the album its own peculiar chemistry. On the other hand, the album also has a few direct flirtations with acoustic-leaning, personal, confessional notes, which turn up toward the end. That’s hardly surprising, since Stephanie sketches out Kleveland’s music by strumming an acoustic guitar. So Sloppy Seconds and the closing It’s Over are really the embodiment of the original ideas, which never got any upgrades at a later stage.
The album has excellent production, which managed to capture the genuine chemical bond between virtuous guitar debauchery, the fat, wound-up foot of an active bass line and the full-on “one-dimensional” pounding of the “snare” drum. “Harder” has a live sharpness, in which Stephanie’s authoritative vocal performance also hits at full force. It’s anything but “teenage” dissonant screaming, as the singer is blessed with a polished, clean vocal sense. In the same breath, it injects a very effective dose of melody into Kleveland’s music, along with the much-needed feeling of debauchery, cheek, arrogance and hints of temptation.
“Harder” sounds like the band played it live in the studio, and in just one take. No more, no less. Instead of embellishments like extra guitar parts, the trio would rather retreat into creakily dissonant droning, which they use to fill the available sonic spectrum of the production. Worth pointing out that Kleveland manage to keep to a recognizable lane, which is a pretty tough and often elusive thing to pull off in 2011, with the market oversaturated with similar bands of garage-grimy rock n’ roll punk tomfoolery, and at a time when the golden years of The Stooges’ pioneering rock inventions are left as just a fond memory. If you want genuine, authentic, bold rock n’ roll shrapnel at full effect, straight to the forehead, madly, then definitely check out “Harder”.
This review was written in collaboration between RockLine and Rock Hard Slovenija.
Lineup
Stephanie Smith – guitar, vocals
Allen Hunter – bass
Thom Sullivan – drums
Production
Kevin Hahn
Tracklist
1.Do It Big
2.Crutch
3.Harder
4.You’re Not Sorry
5.Late Bloomer
6.Low
7.Sloppy Seconds
8.It’s Your Turn
9.Golden Gloves
10.It’s Over
