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Sunday, September 24, 2006
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Louisville Music News Album Review:
"The songs contain flashes of dry lyrical wit amid the often lovely melodies textured in reverbed guitar and synthesizer."

Coming up closer to the surface, however, is a work from a band that acts as a companion piece to other art it creates. Bear from Less the Band stands on its own as a recording of downbeat, down-tempo, dreamy and trippy ambient rock. But it also acts as a soundtrack to the band's stage show and the stories that unfold on the band's Web site, which also contains an interactive Flash-based comic book that explains the concept of the album and why there's a childlike drawing of a robot and a bear trudging through a snowstorm on the back cover.

Expertly-produced by Louisville's Ray Rizzo, who is also the band's percussionist, Bear is full of music that mirrors Rizzo's own musical experiments in pop (with L'Woo), soul and funk (a.m. sunday) and jazz (the Java Men). The songs contain flashes of dry lyrical wit amid the often lovely melodies textured in reverbed guitar and synthesizer. There's some Lou Reed style talk-singing in "I Want to Know You" and a stinging rap in "Cord on Rat." An added treat are the short instrumental bon mots between several of the tracks, such as "Transmission Theory" and "If I Unscrew That Will Your Ass Fall Off?"

Two particular tracks, though separated by others, seem to form the basis of a story: the aforementioned "I Want to Know You" and "I Don't Know You Now." The latter contains a variation of the melody played at the end of "I Want," before the theme featured in "Transmission Theory" appears, followed by a finale where the tempo increases and the vocals become wailing and angry. The two songs act as a theatrical core for the entire work, which makes Bear far more than a stand-alone recording. It seems like it is only part of a larger work that can stand alone, but needs a connection to something visual. It's a soundtrack needing a movie or a stage show. That by no means makes Bear worthless. Instead, it lets its listeners look for their own ways to match their visuals to the music they hear.

Unfortunately, Orson Welles stepped away from his Heart of Darkness project. It would be several decades later before the story was once again adapted for the screen, but not before the locale was moved to Vietnam, the story altered so that it involved a renegade Army colonel and an officer sent to kill him and its name changed to Apocalypse Now. Still, the deep story structure remained intact while the film's creators took calculated and effective liberties with the appearance. Just like someone who takes a simple oval of train track and builds an entire railroad world from it.

Recent Fossils and Bear do that for music.

By Tim Roberts
www.louisvillemusicnews.net
(posted at 10:38 AM)

Sunday, August 06, 2006
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CD Review - Less the Band
Louisville Eccentric Obsever
By Stephen George

I remember fondly a band called Mule, which was active for four glorious years in the early '90s. Mule played this weird kind of blues-rock, with total punk inspiration, like a good, dangerous Jon Spencer. The band fucked with the blues so badly, in such a fine way, that it made me buy their records for the absurd quality of the songs. Turned out some suck. That's beside the point.

Less the band, a new NYC project involving some well-reputed Louisville folks (Ray Rizzo, you make me smile!), made me think about Mule for the first time since I last moved. They're bluesy like Captain Beefheart, with all kinds of weird barking vocals that play like percussion, and a Sonic Youth sense of noise parameters. "Cord on Rat," a disjointed paranoid fantasy a la Radiohead or Pink Floyd (lyrically), jumps with the unbounded energy of a child first discovering open spaces. "I Don't Know You Now" does the Flaming Lips (just for, like, 30 seconds) better than the Flaming Lips do. Speaking of, that song kicks off a three-tune, 23-minute denouement that shows the band's supreme musical athleticism. Do not - I repeat, DO NOT - miss this album.
(posted at 12:27 PM)


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Whisperin and Hollerin, a UK Review
by Adam Harrington
http:/www.whisperinandhollerin.com/reviews/review.asp?id=4004

Less the Band (http://lesstheband.com) are a strange group. If science-fiction author Philip K. Dick had formed a rock band, it probably would've sounded like Less the Band. This isn't so much as an album, at least how people would normally intepret a LP, than a collection of shattered pieces. It's a broken puzzle of a record, filled with odd detours, enigmatic sounds, indecipherable lyrics, and outer-space electronics. Alternative music? Less the Band define that term.

For the sonically adventurous, or anybody sick of predictability and cookie-cutter boredom, Less the Band is what you have been longing for. Opening with the spare, droning "Science," Less the Band summon the sly talk-singing of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and give it an Eels makeover on "I Want to Know You," a bizarre tale of longing well-suited for robotic courtship.

Less the Band's short attention span never has them sticking to a groove. On "Cord On Rat," the group goes nuts, copping a Pink Floyd "Money" riff with the ominous tones of Joy Division then abruptly crashing into a stomping beat and strangely rapped vocals. Your parents will be scared.

Much has been made of the post-punk revival lately, but Less The Band more accurately reflects the no-compromise edges of the genre's original philosophy than many of today's wanna-be's. With obvious influences ranging from Public Image Ltd. to Sonic Youth and the Pixies, Less the Band embody the damn the mainstream attitude which sparked post-punk in the first place.
(posted at 12:25 PM)

Monday, May 22, 2006
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Less is now transmitted over the digital airwaves. Listen to Radio Indie Pop on the Monday playlist to catch a tune off of "Bear".
Thanks Rob Sacher over at Radio Indie Pop for including us in the great programing selections you've got going on.
If you've yet to discover Radio Indie Pop, it's an excellent mix of new and emerging indie music and your favorite tunes from your personal playlists. Check it out, it's a simple free sign-up, no hassle.
(posted at 11:49 AM)

Wednesday, May 03, 2006
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Corrections Dept. Transmission 0001

On the liner notes for BEAR, the mix credits are misnumbered. It should read:

Songs 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 11 mixed by Kevin Meeker. Songs 1, 8, and 10 mixed by Tim Iseler. Songs 5 and 9 mixed by Tim with additional mixing by Kevin.

Big apologies to T and K, without whom there would be no Bear.

LTB
(posted at 4:43 PM)

Thursday, April 13, 2006
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"Bear", the debut album, is available @ CD Baby!
Get it here:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/lesstheband
(posted at 2:33 AM)

Friday, March 31, 2006
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The debut album is here! We will celebrate the release of "Bear" at Sin'e on April 9th starting at 8pm.
guest artists will play music as robots and bears contemplate stacks of vacuum tubes, transistors
t-shirts will say "Less" - robots are sad on them
be happy wearing them
party with us
see people dance,
join them - just drink
and then take Less home with you.
(posted at 2:05 PM)

Tuesday, March 14, 2006
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Our name is now Less the band as opposed to just Less which is the name of a group from San Francisco. (www.less.com) Maybe someday we can play a show together and bill it as LESSTHEBANDLESS. That would be radical to see on a flier.
(posted at 5:27 AM)


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How to Grasp Great Existential Truths

by LESS

Form a unit. (see: Start A Band, Found An Institution, Form A Bond, Have Offspring, Participate In Mutual Trust, Carpool.)

Don't quit.

Don't get kicked out.

Fear Less.
(posted at 5:15 AM)