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REVIEWS:
It's not often that you find
a release by a local band to be a masterful and completely
creative recording. It's also not often that you find
that same release to be a touchingly subtle concept album
that reveals itself after multiple listens. The Jack McCoys
have succeeded in doing both with their sophomore release
„All the Weeping Cameras.‰ The dissection of
the constant observer, photographer, and the voyeur has
definitely been tackled by cinema, but the subject of
the aforementioned has really not been successfully written
about by the musician/lyricist until now. Matt Savage
(vocals) delves into the realm of photography, from the
capturing of mundane imagery, to the process of developing,
to the way different people pose for, catalogue, or discard,
these timeless images. Savage successfully ties every
song together with a beautiful narrative on photography,
which displays his handle on the creative manipulation
of language. The last lines of the album in the song "The
Art of Sleeping" says it all "Light screaming
through the hole/the message is in code/the language is
on fire". The Jack McCoys have a sound that at times
is reminiscent of that loose and sloppy genius of early
90's Pavement records. This is most notable in the textures
and the tones of the dueling guitars of Dan Madri and
Christian Cundari. Tyler Pollard (Bass) and Phillip Ouellette
(drums) stay in a pocket, which sways between an indie-rock
assault and a Motown groove. Hovering on top of all of
this is Savages original vocal delivery and timbre, which
is topped by his uncanny ability to create some serious
melodic hooks in a very unconventional matter (sometimes
hiccuping words at the end of phrases by utilizing tight
intervallic leaps). Another cool effect, which ties all
the songs thematically together, are these long outros/intros
between songs. There's also no discernible pop formula
in their arrangements, which makes the entire album even
more appealing.
- Tom Korkidis, Northeast Performer
Magazine
Organic. Not the food that
costs twice as much as regular food, but the feel of this
band called The Jack McCoys from the Northeast. Everything
this band displays on their EP All The Weeping Cameras
speaks volumes of the do-it-yourself ethic. It feels inevitable
that this release would come from this group of boys.
The sound is hard to describe.
Their bio says it's "post-rock," but I'm not
that smart. I don't know what that means. The music just
feels really calm and in control. Organic, perhaps. The
lyrics are really, really good -- too good perhaps. Singer
Matt Savage's voice can get incoherent at times, but reading
the lyrics reveals some poignant imagery and obvious writing
talent. But, like I said, I'm not that smart.
There are elements of different
kinds of music evident here. Some heavy reverb slide guitar,
combined with some tape effects give "Half-Written
Letter" a Cowboy Junkies type of feel, without being
overly cold. There's no blistering guitar work or showmanship
here, just stream-of-consciousness stuff that gets really
good at moments.
There's no denying that this
band has talent. Its sparse melodies and rhythms leave
nothing to be desired, and the lyrics just make it all
that much better. But of course, you will be left with
your own mind to make up. I'm not really certain that
me writing this will make any sort of difference in the
cosmos; after all, what's organic in roots tends to create
what it will, no matter what people that aren't that smart
say.
- James Song, Agouti Music
Featuring members of the control
group, slept, and the nasties, the jack mccoys are a somerville,
ma quintet that play a brand of mellow rock that fuses
together indie, emo, and tinges of classic styled rock
grooves. all the weeping cameras is their 7 song cd out
on ambiguous city records. the songs are straight mellow.
fusing together indie, emo, and other genres of mellow
music to deliver a nice, somber sound that is both soothing
and relaxing. the guitars are very melodic. the bass is
jazzy sounding, and the drums loom in from quiet to pounding.
the vocals are soft, yet prominent. putting all these
ingredients together, the jack mccoys create a record
that is captivating and moving. i'm definitely looking
forward to hearing more from this band in the future.
- Calamity Project.com
This Boston-based band's very
strong second album ponders the inadequacy of images written,
photographed or, by inference, recorded as music. Its
complex mixture of dual guitars, bass, drums and the hoarsely
emotive voice of lead singer Matt Savage surges and ebbs
around complex themes of memory and change. The cameras,
it turns out, have a lot to cry about.
The album's sound ranges from
loud, emo-esque post rock ("Sinking in Sentences
and Paragraphs") to bizarrely twisted Americana ("Fossils
and Artifacts" incorporates off-tuned banjo notes)
to plaintive ballads that could have come from a late-period
REM album ("Photography" and "The Art of
Sleeping"). There is a constant, however, in that
the band's rhythm section -- Phillip Ouellette on drums
and Tyler Pollar -- set up tight structural parameters,
embellished with the often delicate and sometimes thunderous
interplay of guitarists Christian Cundari and Daniel Madri.
Over this well-structured architectural base, Savage's
voice flourishes and sweeps like a series of gorgeous
Gaudi towers, spilling over the notes and phrases with
organic abandon, his rough tremolo betraying just how
much it matters.
Conceptually, the album explores
the ways people preserve thought and memory, and how poorly
our attempts to write it down, frame it up or roll the
tape represent either the past or the present. Some of
the album's words on this theme are real poetry and would
stand up even without the accompanying music. For instance,
from "Photograph": "All the whites and
greys that settle on you / settle on me in this room /
where the light was orange and dim / and the wasted time
it took to / catch you in mid-smile / is the whole history
of photography." Or again, in "A Star is":
"The flicker and flash / of cameras when they sentence
you / to photo albums and dressers where / your height
and your width are wrestled / from your other dimensions
/ the ones you wished came out / in perfect rectangles."
- Splendid EZine
Maybe it's because I'm a closet
Law and Order fan, but even before I listened to it, I
was inclined to like the Jack McCoys' All The Weeping
Cameras. And I must say, I wasn't disappointed. Now maybe
the "real" Jack McCoy wouldn't be caught dead
showing the raw honest emotion found in a song like "Sinking
in Sentences and Paragraphs" but the Jack McCoys
certainly can handle it with composure and confidence.
A concept album of sorts, All the Weeping Cameras speaks
of relationships and events through the watchful eyes
of a photograper and his product. Overall, the album has
a jangly guitar-driven sound, but the Jack McCoys don't
come off like REM or rip-offs. Instead, they offer a more
polished guitar rock sound not often found without the
addition of annoying keyboard "techniques."
Standouts include "A Star Is," and my personal
favorite, "Half-written Letter," a slow-burning
tune that rolls around in your head long after it's over.
- Amplifier Magazine
At first glance, these guys
reminded me of OK Computer-era Radiohead, with swirling
guitars, disjointed emotive vocals and extraneous noise.
But, after a few songs the group took on a life of its
own and the album seemed to shed my immediate comparisons.
The songs are catchy, yet uncommercial enough in approach
to keep the pop in check. An understated dissonance is
integral to the overall sound, and in turn the group seems
to owe as much to a ghostly legacy of Fugazi as well as
Radiohead. In the end, it's an amazing collection of modern
rock songs that defy simple categorization.
- Mish Mash Magazine
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