In Rotation

In the Mix is a monthly column of reviews of albums by musical artists local to the Reno area. To submit an album for review consideration, send a physical copy to Brad Bynum, Reno News & Review, 708 N. Center St., Reno NV 89501 or a digital link to bradb@ newsreview.com. For more information, visit spitimage.tumblr.com or www.timtucker band.com.

Spitting Image

Valley Floor

An unhappy truth for local music fans is that the best bands often don’t stay in Reno. After a certain amount of success, the bands move to a bigger market, or a couple of the key members do, or, frustrated by the lack of opportunities, the bands either implode or drift into some narrow niche and lose whatever innovative vitality they might have once had. In other words, either they move away or they start to suck. (There are exceptions, of course.) ART PUNK This is especially true for bands on the far left end of the dial, and Spitting Image is definitely found there. The quartet plays art punk, with broken rhythms, abstract, occasionally atonal sounds, and violent bursts of energy. But most bands associated with these types of sounds, like Talking Heads, Fugazi or Sonic Youth, seem distinctly urban, whereas Spitting Image is a band of the desert.

Guitarist Julian Jacobs tempers his ferocious guitar lines with hints of Western twang. All the members play with the sense of spacious balance of a landscape photograph. Vocalist Austin Pratt sometimes sounds like Ian Svenonius of the influential D.C. punk band Nation of Ulysses, but while Svenonius’ lyrics were usually satirical and political, Pratt’s are evocative of Western imagery: “No saloon, and no stone tomb, no weed tumbled, black smoke, old legends doom,” he sings in “Stone Tomb.”

Tim Tucker Band

Tucker Too

It would be easy to dismiss the Tim Tucker

One of the coolest things about this three-song 7-inch Band as a studio owner’s vanity project— record is that it comes packaged with a zine, titled “Sym- Tucker owns Sierra Sonics Recording Stupathy for the Detail,” after a lyric in the song “Negative dio—but Tucker Too, the band’s new album, is surprisSpace,” and featuring artwork by more than a dozen of ingly accomplished. Reno’s best visual artists, including Nick Larsen, Ashley The songwriting is good, if a bit rudimentary, often Westwood, Kelly Peyton, Chris Carnel and Michael Sarich. relying on heavily repeated refrains. But there are Pratt and drummer Casey Conrad also contribute art- enough musical surprises to maintain interest. The work. The images in the zine range from photographs of Nevada deserts to drawings of animals, and it’s SOFT ROCK funky sax solos on leadoff track “Jamestown” are especially welBIG HE ADERS GIZA 25pt 25k come. All of the musicianship is very pro, especially guitarist Adlai Alexander, whose playing is often reminiscent of Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame. Overall, the sequenced to reference the lyrics or the energies of the music, almost like a kids’ read-along storybook. This visual accompaniment reinforces the Northern SMALL HE ADERS GIZA 15pt 55k (60% OF BIG HE AD) album combines appealing, simplistic songwriting, sort of like Neil Young in Harvestmode, with slick adult contemporary production. It’s pleasant, smooth, and easy Nevada-centricity of the music and lyrics. Keen listeners might even notice musical references to bygone local bands. The best music always reflects the place it comes from, and it’s a high compliment—and an encouraging on the ears, if a bit dated to the ’80s, sort of like the sign for local music fans—to say that these songs could audio equivalent of a Patrick Nagel print. have come from no place other than Reno. —Brad Bynum

BIG HEADERS GIZA 25pt 25k SMALL HEADERS GIZA 15pt 55k (60% OF BIG HEAD)