Westville Gallery
Da
Silva Gallery
Gabriel
Da Silva, Owner
Current Exhibit:
September 8 - September25, 2010
Opening Reception: Sunday, September 12th 2010 3-6pm
Norman Cross and Frank Critelli, Ain't It The Truth
- The Songs and Poetry of Norman Cross (self-released, Barking
Toad Publishing, normancrossfineart.carbonmade.com). Cross and
Critelli are brothers from different mothers. Both look at life
as a series of opportunities for creative expression. Both are
musicians who treasure words, both believe in spontaneous combustion
of the artistic variety. Cross is also a painter. Through the
years, Cross' hands have been crippled and he is no longer able
to play guitar or piano. His soulful voice has grown husky. Enter
Critelli, twenty years his junior and in his prime as a guitar
player and musician. Add a kitchen table, coffee, a tambourine,
a harmonica and a small digital recorder and you come up with
Ain't It The Truth. Over improvised acoustic guitar vamps from
Critelli, Cross sings, reads and invents his poetry and lyrics.
The freedom and joy in both artists' performances are obvious.
There are 25 tracks on the CD; about half are spoken-word and
15 were recorded in the same mode as the kitchen table songs,
though at . The pro studio setting embraces Cross' reading voice,
and extra percussion tracks and electric guitars give him a chance
to indulge his John Lee Hooker/Van Morrison fantasies. Cross delivers.
-James Velvet
Norman Cross holds a combination
CD release party/artist's reception Sept. 12 at Da Silva Gallery
(897 Whalley Ave.) at 3 p.m. with Frank Critelli.
Straight to VHS (self-titled, Cosmodemonic Telegraph,
hozomeen.org). There's something almost intangibly arresting about
the defiantly scuzzy, 11-minute, five-song debut EP from this
New London garage rock trio, something that glimmers through the
bare-bones songwriting, rough-edged (at times flat-out sloppy)
musicianship and bargain-basement production values. In fact,
in a certain light, the raw, urgent spirit Straight to VHS exude
increases in power when they're at their wildest and least professional:
the chorus of "," which is actually just a quick, shouted,
"HEY!" The bit on "" that probably should
be a chorus, but instead remains a frantic ascending/descending
chord progression. The disproportionately loud overdubbed power-chord
that ends that song. The mere fact that they named one of their
songs "Self Titled." The sense that the band's presenting
essentially five variations on the same kind of song (repetitive,
snarly riff that rises to a messy climax, with loud multi-tracked
singing over it all). The many times when it sounds like the members
of the rhythm section are falling over each other. This stuff
swaggers and staggers, and it's likely to engross people who like
their rock music loud, sweaty, grimy and simple. Why, exactly?
I dunno; rock 'n' roll's magic that way. -Brian LaRue
Straight to VHS play the I AM Festival in New London Sept. 11
with We Are Scientists, Mates Of State, O'Death, Darlings, Fake
Babies, MiniBoone, Gone For Good, The Hempsteadys and more.
899 Whalley Avenue, Westville Village/New Haven, CT 06515
Tel. 203-387-2539 Fax 203-387-2530
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