CD Reviews

Guillermo Sexo | Secret Wild

Girl Boy Girl Boy Records (2011)

By BARRY THOMPSON | August 30, 2011

3.0 Stars

A Boston-area quartet discovered a middle-road solution to the dilemma confronted by every band who endures past its sophomore album. Facing a choice between cranking out same-y records until everyone gets bored, or straying so far from their fundamental formula that their fans fly into a fury, Guillermo Sexo opt to stay mostly within their own private panorama of alterna-rock finery while still shaking things up a bit. (Side note: does anyone mind if we start using "alternative" as a blanket term for underground-ish rock again? It always had a better ring to it than "indie.") Last year's Vivid Nights exuded garage-y raggedness, with Noell Dorsey and Reuben Bettsak splitting lead singer tasks more or less 50/50. On Secret Wild, Sexo's fourth album (released in CD form last month), Dorsey is mostly alone in projecting words onto the gleaming guitar resonance that suggests gazier endeavors like the aptly cloudy "Skyline" and the temperamental "Smoke Signals." Calm/downer numbers on rock records often come across as contrived, but the titular track and "Exhale" attain total Mazzy Star pleasantness. And speaking of stars, we have to dock them half of one for the two tracks of quavering effects-pedal noise. Songs are better than noise, usually.

GUILLERMO SEXO + ALOUD + SARAH RABDAU & SELF-EMPLOYED ASSASSINS | Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston | September 13 @ 9 pm | 18+ | $10 | 617.566.9014

From the bedroom to beyond with Craft Spells
There's been an enormous wave of musicians gaining notoriety for creating work where they sleep, and subsequently seeing their star rise as blogs have picked up on the results.
Pepper Rabbit | Red Velvet Snow Ball
Were Zach Braff still struggling to get Garden State made, there's no doubt one of these songs would have made the mix CD he was shopping around Hollywood with his script.
Out: Boston loses a musical ace
As the book says, it is best to follow the example set by Jesus Christ himself — live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse.
The Poison Oaks | Pine
It feels unfair for the Poison Oaks to release , their debut 7-inch, on the cusp of another New England winter.
Mutual Benefit | The Cowboy's Prayer
The foggy pop of The Cowboy's Prayer could serve as an unintended ode and thank you to global warming for making this year's fall feel like spring.
Ridgemont | Colder Days
For some, colder days in Boston mean more whiskey, more isolation, and a time to reflect and mostly be pissed off.
For Coyote Kolb, the roots come together
Johnny Cash's baleful self-portrait "Ain't No Grave" oozes into my skull through a Sailor Jerry haze.
Craig Finn | Clear Heart, Full Eyes
In the near-decade he's spent as frontman-lyricist of bar-rock saviors the Hold Steady, Craig Finn has hardly been labeled a happy camper.
Lower Dens | Nootropics
From her earliest freak-folk beginnings, Jana Hunter has mastered the beautiful bummer jam.
Mellow Bravo | Mellow Bravo
Some of us with a limited scope of vision figured Mellow Bravo — who strive for the crown of America's ultimate bar band — only had three possible strategies for following up 2010's Strut.
Zambri | House of Baasa
For those of us of a certain age who remember when school dances had a strict four-fast-songs-then-one-slow-one policy, the memory of bouncing around to "Let's Hear It for the Boy" with the anticipation of "One More Night" or "Take My Breath Away" still makes our palms sweat with hormonal anxiety.
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Boston, Music, Guillermo Sexo, More

| More

See more deals

view all

[ 05/29 ] PuppeTyranny present "Beans! Beans! Beans!" @ 95 Empire

[ 05/29 ] "2012 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition" @ Rhode Island Convention Center

[ 05/29 ] "TechnoCraft: Where High Tech Meets Handmade," @ Jamestown Arts Center

ARTICLES BY BARRY THOMPSON

SCOTT LUCAS & THE MARRIED MEN | BLOOD HALF MOON | May 29, 2012
The good ol' days of 1996 — the year Local H's "Bound for the Floor" played once every half hour on modern-rock radio — was a long-ass time ago.

OUT: AN ELECTRONIC SÉANCE WITH HOORAY FOR EARTH AND ZAMBRI AT GREAT SCOTT | May 23, 2012
We in Boston enjoy reminding others that Hooray for Earth originally formed here, so we can still call them a Boston band.

GRASS WIDOW | INTERNAL LOGIC | May 22, 2012
There is stuff not to like about Internal Logic: a pair of instrumental interludes probably don't need to be there, and the drums aren't as gleefully chaotic as they were on 2010's Past Time.

THE PUNK BUSINESS PLAN OF COCK SPARRER | May 15, 2012
If you play in, work with, or write about bands, you've doubtlessly listened to dozens of wheeler-and-dealers pitch purportedly clever plans to "make it" in the music biz.