Tilly and the Wall

Bottoms of Barrels | Team Love
By MIKAEL WOOD  |  June 6, 2006
2.5 2.5 Stars

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NOVELTY ACT?: Tilly and the Wall haven't gone out to high-concept pasture yet.

The title of the second album by this quirky Omaha outfit seeks to pre-empt the sneers of those who’d call the band’s central conceit — employing tap dancer Jamie Williams in place of a conventional drummer — an attempt at novelty straight from the bottom of the indie-rock barrel. Which it kind of is: despite their affiliation with underground demigod Conor Oberst, I’d give Tilly and the Wall two more albums max before the blogosphere tires of the idea and puts the group out to some high-concept pasture. Till then, however, the tap dancing makes perfect sense in Tilly’s boisterous, lovedrunk sound, which skirts indie-folk tedium through sheer energy. Like 2004’s Wild like Children, Bottoms of Barrels runs at top gear from beginning to end; even ballads like “Lost Girls,” where the band sing of dark woods full of deadly trees, vibrate with briskly strummed acoustic guitars and full-throated harmony vocals. A drummer might slow things down, but Williams’s crisp, fleet-footed tapping keeps up, moving the music ever closer toward climax.

TILLY AND THE WALL + DAVID DONDERO + TIGERSAW | June 13 | T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge | 617.492.BEAR

Related: Tellers and a show, What's left behind, Never say die, More more >
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