FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1999. All Rights Reserved
| CD Review by Aubrey McInnis GARDENER • Members include Aaron Stauffer (Seaweed), Van Conner (Screaming Trees), Pat Conner (Van’s little brother), Alan Cage (Quicksand, Seaweed), John Atkins (Seaweed), Clint Werner (Seaweed) and a slew of other guest musicians. Eventually, if you hassle your teen idol enough, he or she may want to collaborate with you. In the late ’80s, the favourite band of Seaweed’s Aaron Stauffer was the Screaming Trees. A friendship between himself and the Trees’ Van Conner blossomed out of his incessant attempts to get gigs for the Trees in his Tacoma hometown. By the early ’90s, Seaweed and the Screaming Trees found themselves touring together enjoying the Seattle music explosion, and Stauffer and Connor realized that they were in a similar headspace. As grunge bowed out, in came Gardener – a permanent collaboration between the two pals. It sounds like enough time has transpired to allow Gardener to develop their fresh angle on music. New Dawning Time is a prime opportunity to hear a subdued version of Stauffer and a less gritty Conner. Both distortion-heads have ditched the hardcore guitar, the crunchy aural punches and punk metal power-vox – it’s sitars and light harmonies that guide the music here. A mixed bag of fresh, low-key approaches, with more than a few memorable moments (singing two-part harmonies in tune) and a pair of ready-to-go rockers, Gardener’s debut is a worthwhile re-introduction to a couple of guys and a sneak peak into their promising futures... all over again. 3/5 |
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