Brown Shoe

"The Wheat Patch" CD

self-released

Genres: indie rock, indie pop

November 2006

A bland name for a band, a bland name for an album, and a somewhat bland type of music. Brown Shoe are an inoffensive atmospheric rock band listing bands like Mogwai, Yume Bitsu, and The Doves as their kinfolk. This record seems to suffer from a lack of direction in song structure and mediocre production. The singer's got the chops but they aren't really put to good use on moaning background songs like "Traveling" and "Postcards". I admire BS's (ha ha) attempt to make something different of this record but they need to make their melodies more obvious and make their compositions more pointed. With that said, there are certainly good elements on The Wheat Patch, including the deep hooks of "Northern Lights" and the relaxed vibe of "High Strung", but the main problem I'm noticing is the songs' tendency to warble and drone along without enough rhythmic and structural solidity. If they can tighten things up, Brown Shoe will have something; for now they seem to teeter too much between straightforward rock and drone rock, becoming stagnant in their indecisiveness.

guyspace

66%

Fun Fact: According to their press release, I've "never heard a band like Brown Shoe."

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 12 tracks distributed by CD Baby, released 2006]