Fluent in StrollBig D & The Kids Table
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Released: July 7, 2009
Label: SideOneDummy
Review by: Bill Jones
Picture being a judge during the Olympic Games. A promising young gymnast steps up to the mat. It is commonplace to expect the next trivial evolution of her routine – a simple reorganization of many of the moves seen throughout the day by other competitors in the event, ideally with a marginally better performance.
And then something beautiful happens.
The gymnast gets rid of the proverbial safety nets and mats, and launches into a routine that is entirely new and exciting. On the surface, the routine is not dissimilar to decades of other performances, but she is reinventing the rules and launching herself into unknown territory, uncertain of where things are going, inventing as she moves, and the landing isn’t guaranteed.
The moves aren’t perfect – some of the techniques are abrasive (possibly unnecessarily), it might alienate traditional fans and the performance has a few notable flaws – but how does one take away from something so beautiful. The idea of letting go, experimenting, truly performing, it’s…cool.
Such is the feeling of listening to the latest from Allston favorites Big D & The Kids Table, but then the gymnast turns out to be a “tough little ninja” and escapes on an elephant with vocalist David McWane. Fluent in Stroll is an amalgamation of hopscotch, double dutch, soul, ska and reggae that the band calls “stroll,” and that sounds about right.
While judging a book by its cover is almost always shunned, the cover of Fluent in Stroll has an odd way of letting the listener know exactly what he or she is in for. On it, a women with bright red lipstick, a cigarette in hand, and a 1950s-looking bikini top and hairstyle, stands with all sorts of shapes and figures seemingly emanating from her eyes, with the objects and background dressed in faded colors that give it a retro vibe. And somehow, that image perfectly describes the sounds to be found on the album’s 14 tracks.
Fluent in Stroll sounds like the album that should be playing in a Cadillac convertible on a perfect sunny day at the beach, decades ago, and more so than any other album has humbled this reviewer into realizing that sometimes there are no 1,000 words that can create the same experience as just listening to the music. And Fluent in Stroll is well worth that listen.
Big D & The Kids Table is a band of real musicians, in the strictest sense of the word. If the band’s catalog to date hasn’t proven to fans that the Boston natives are much more than a “ska” band, Fluent in Stroll surely will. Never content with doing the same thing twice, rehashing ideas or conforming to a particular sound, the classically trained musicians have dabbled in everything from straight-up punk , to a Strictly Rude vibe, to all-out dub (Salem Girls), and even a gangsta rap back in the day. And six full-length albums into the band’s career, those changes have never felt forced or pretentious – well, maybe with the exception of that hip-hop oddity – but rather like intelligent musicians candidly experimenting with new ideas while paying tribute to favored genres, despite the risk of alienating fans that like one sound or another, constantly staying relevant in the process. Fluent in Stroll isn’t perfect, but the creativity is a thing of beauty.
And then something beautiful happens.
The gymnast gets rid of the proverbial safety nets and mats, and launches into a routine that is entirely new and exciting. On the surface, the routine is not dissimilar to decades of other performances, but she is reinventing the rules and launching herself into unknown territory, uncertain of where things are going, inventing as she moves, and the landing isn’t guaranteed.
The moves aren’t perfect – some of the techniques are abrasive (possibly unnecessarily), it might alienate traditional fans and the performance has a few notable flaws – but how does one take away from something so beautiful. The idea of letting go, experimenting, truly performing, it’s…cool.
Such is the feeling of listening to the latest from Allston favorites Big D & The Kids Table, but then the gymnast turns out to be a “tough little ninja” and escapes on an elephant with vocalist David McWane. Fluent in Stroll is an amalgamation of hopscotch, double dutch, soul, ska and reggae that the band calls “stroll,” and that sounds about right.
While judging a book by its cover is almost always shunned, the cover of Fluent in Stroll has an odd way of letting the listener know exactly what he or she is in for. On it, a women with bright red lipstick, a cigarette in hand, and a 1950s-looking bikini top and hairstyle, stands with all sorts of shapes and figures seemingly emanating from her eyes, with the objects and background dressed in faded colors that give it a retro vibe. And somehow, that image perfectly describes the sounds to be found on the album’s 14 tracks.
Fluent in Stroll sounds like the album that should be playing in a Cadillac convertible on a perfect sunny day at the beach, decades ago, and more so than any other album has humbled this reviewer into realizing that sometimes there are no 1,000 words that can create the same experience as just listening to the music. And Fluent in Stroll is well worth that listen.
Big D & The Kids Table is a band of real musicians, in the strictest sense of the word. If the band’s catalog to date hasn’t proven to fans that the Boston natives are much more than a “ska” band, Fluent in Stroll surely will. Never content with doing the same thing twice, rehashing ideas or conforming to a particular sound, the classically trained musicians have dabbled in everything from straight-up punk , to a Strictly Rude vibe, to all-out dub (Salem Girls), and even a gangsta rap back in the day. And six full-length albums into the band’s career, those changes have never felt forced or pretentious – well, maybe with the exception of that hip-hop oddity – but rather like intelligent musicians candidly experimenting with new ideas while paying tribute to favored genres, despite the risk of alienating fans that like one sound or another, constantly staying relevant in the process. Fluent in Stroll isn’t perfect, but the creativity is a thing of beauty.
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