Eleventh Dream Day are the perfect "elder statesman" band. Let's quickly count off their credentials.
- They've been around for well over ten years.
- Their albums, while adored by critics, never found a huge audience.
- They were dropped by a major label that couldn't figure out how to market them.
- Band members now divide their time among other high-profile groups.
Listening to Eleventh Dream Day can be a sublime and envigorating experience, but all too often the details slip away. Before writing this review, I went back through a few of my old EDD albums to make certain my assertions would be accurate -- only to discover that my memories of their sound were muddy at best. I recalled a far grimmer and more angular sound, probably stemming from their 1989 major label debut, Beet, though this can probably be attributed to second guitarist Baird Figi, who left EDD in 1992.
Stalled Parade, the band's second album for Thrill Jockey, isn't grim at all. There are sad moments, such as the downtrodden country-blues wail of "Valrico74", but it's safe to say that the Year 2000 finds Eleventh Dream Day fairly content. They've moved past the stark and threadbare Neil Young-isms of their early work, bringing the same ideas to life on a far grander scale on the title track. No longer an active live ensemble, Eleventh Dream Day clearly feels less of a need to limit their compositions to what they can reproduce on stage, resulting in sweeping visions of mature -- but undeniably Midwestern -- rock.
Straight-forward rockers like "Ice Storm" seem effortless for Rizzo, Bean and McCombs; it's easy to picture them smiling as they play, knowing they've written these songs not as a bid for credibility or a way to earn a paycheck but because they still have something left to say. Their enthusiasm flows in waves from "Interstate", Rick Rizzo and Janet Beveridge Bean's vocals mingling over a hard-driving rhythm. Wicked-edged guitar artistry is at work on "In the Style of...", but there's a constant sense that the band is in total control, even on its longer instrumental passages. Elements once chalked up to spontaneity are now ably governed by skill. Listen to the sublimely beautiful "Bite the Hand" to see what skill can do.
If you're drawn to Stalled Parade by Doug McCombs' association, don't waste time looking for any Tortoise or Brokeback references. Likewise, while there are elements of country music in a few songs, they're an influence that predates (or perhaps parallels) Janet Beveridge Bean's Freakwater work. Other than an increased tendency towards Midwestern punk rock stylings, they're the same as they ever were...only better. Listen to "Way Too Early on a Sunday Morning" and try to tell me otherwise.
