Some things you may have heard through the grapevine:
The Wilmington Star
If you don't already know Schooner's music, you're missing out on not only a great N.C. band, but a poetically inclined buffet of pop perfection. Reid Johnson's lyrical quality is transporting, and the band's 2004 debut, You Forgot About Your Heart, is an absolute auditory gem.
Bees Knees Zine (Athens, GA)
...I witnessed a live show of a man possessed as the lead singer / guitarist Reid Johnson
commanded that not only you listen, but that you watch in amazement as his band went from
gazing out with effects to spastic acoustic guitar based folk numbers to poppy keyboard driven songs making us all remember how much that first Shins record blew us away, and maybe this might be the next band to blow everyone else away. The record (You Forget About Your Heart) is not just recommended, but I would call it pretty much essential.
ChromeWaves.net
Blending sweet boy-girl vocals, some '50s doo-wop and '60s baroque pop influences (not heavy, but there) with the college rock skronk of their hometown in the '90s and some timeless power-pop hookery, the five-piece didn't disappoint...
-Frank Yang's take on our Pop Montreal show
Independent Weekly (NC)
When Schooner isn't pushing the tempo on sad-eyed rockers and making melancholy sound fun, this Pox World prize dresses delicate moments in uplifting melodies that reach for the light at the end of the tunnel. It's sad, heartening, honest pop. –Robbie Mackey
Reid Johnson’s voice… can be as wintry and challenging as Mark Kozelek's distant tone and as confiding and intimate as Sam Beam's breathy whisper. Johnson's songs follow suit, pushed-to-the-edge statements about taking comfort in the small things, especially if they're all that's left. Pretty great. –Grayson Currin
Schooner's pop rock tumbles and sways, and even when it lands on its ass, there's a kind of grace that guides it on its charming, ramshackle way. –Chris Parker
Hold on Too Tight reviews:
Americana UK
Think “Fear and loathing in Las Vegas” meets the kitsch of “Back to the Future” mixed in with
some Mazzy Star and a whole load of Hammond and you'll be somewhere near to describing this album. What a fucking marvellous band.
Sian Claire Owen
Rating: 10 out of 10
Pitchforkmedia.com
"Carrboro" is like a modern, lo-fi Beach Boys gem sung by Stephin Merritt if he'd grown up below the Mason-Dixon Line. Reid Johnson's deep, deadpan baritone induces a narcotic effect as it pours over his sister Kathryn's antithetically cheery vintage organ line like cough syrup. And when the two siblings sing together in deliciously piquant harmony, the languorous humidity of Reid's jaded croon is made all the more evident as it rubs up against Kathryn's sweet, airy voice. Together they sound like the doomed writer and the southern belle, Tennessee Williams singing with Scarlett O'Hara. Even though the keyboards crash into a sunny, sing-along chorus, this tune is actually a deceptively depressing tale of a lonely girl in a new town who loves often and badly ("You said, 'I love you,' without thinking twice/ I knew I didn't, but thought it was nice.") But by cloaking her bruised story in woozy loveliness, Reid and his band take lemons and make lemonade. And really, what's more Southern than that?
Harp
Schooner's disheveled pop is a tricky thing, detouring into bleary-eyed rock and worried country over Hold On Too Tight's 16 tracks. Like fellow North Carolina natives the Comas, the band is glad to follow the erratic moods of its frontman, but Schooner's Reid Johnson exudes angst and charisma with a strangely gentle touch. His sleepy mumble fits his songs' aching sadness and warm coats of reverb. “Hospital Floor” creeps along like Low, “Strange Alibis” jerks and twists as if powered by rubber bands, “Tears in Your Ears” chimes its way steadily to a groggy atmosphere, and “Pray for You to Die” mines black comedy as few pop songs dare. The only complaint would be the listlessness here, but asking Schooner to travel in one direction would diminish the intimate joys to be found as they amble through their best record yet. – Doug Wallen
CMJ.com
Never heard of Schooner? Then, boy, have you been missing out! This Chapel Hill-based five-piece is lead by the brother-sister team of Reid and Kathryn Johnson, but rarely has a sibling relationship created something this harmonious.
On their excellent sophomore effort, they blow through 16 tracks of swooning vintage pop, fuzzy Guided By Voices-ish rock and woozy Sinatra/Hazlewood-like country for an overall effect that's equal parts dreamy, deadpan and doomed. All of the wistful lap steel, crystalline harmonies and mournful organ parts are anchored by Reid's disenchanted croon, which is reminiscent at once of Morrissey's and Stephin Merritt's. And on the country-ish ballads, like "Married," when he's joined by his sister's spectral soprano, their interplay is akin to that on the recent Arthur And Yu debut; it's intimate, narcotic and addictive. Despite song titles like "Pray For You To Die" and the equally dark lyricism of tracks like "Leaving Your Room" and "Hospital Floor," not all of this haunting record is doomy and aching.
There are uptempo numbers as well—"Carrboro" and "They Always Do!" wrap stories of bruised women and cynical men around chugging, '60s-inspired hooks and melodies so beautiful that they are incongruous with the stark sadness of their lyrics. "I Would Tell You That I'm Stuck" is the one track that's out of place, but that's actually a good thing. With its lo-fi, almost punk throttle and ease with the f-word, it is the black eye this pristine collection was asking for. It keeps things just scruffy enough to remind listeners that, though the rest of the sedate love songs on the disc may sound lovely, underneath their layers of mellow reverb lurks a dark and unflinching heart.
Rebecca Raber
The Phill(er)
When it comes down to it, Schooner sound like Schooner. Their songs are beautiful. "Married" is three minutes of country heartbreak and it moves straight into a Pet Soundsy number called "They Always Do!", which builds to a beautiful chorus ending, and gives way to two-and-a-half minutes of fuzz-pop glory called "I Would Tell You That I'm Stuck". Everything they do well (and they do everything well) is put together to create an aching meditation, "Hospital Floor". Lest things get too morose, they follow up that number with a less than two-minute acoustic stomper. The album reprises the do-do-dos and tucks you into bed with a warm blanket called "Ladybug".
Vangurad (Portland State University)
Mellow but catchy acoustic indie rock from this North Carolina five-piece. Think Mazzy Star
meets Scott Walker. Plenty of reverb and female vocals. Moody songs backed by a variety of
unusual sounds like accordion, pedal steel, viola and lampshade. Good stuff that grows on you.
Herohill
The arrangements feature a trunk full of well placed instruments (case in point, the beautiful sounds on one of my favorite tracks Leaving Your Room) and rely more on gradual builds than instant hooks. I think the mix works, and Reid and Kathryn's double vocals still stand out work well, but on songs like Married, it's the extra touches (like the distant lap steel) that add the emotion to the song.
The record is well thought out and it's obvious they took the time to get the sound they wanted on each song. The choral backing of The Pox Family Singers on They Always Do! or the nicely placed chimes on Ladybug add that little push needed to help these songs really pop, despite the slow pace.
This record won't grab you with a heart thumping kick drum or crunched guitars, but with all the acts trying to use the same routine, it's refreshing to hear a band looking past the draw of a quick hit and move more towards the lovely, brooding, heart warming depression I prefer to hear.
Rocky P
Encore Magazine
Schooner is currently one of NC's catchiest, melding an effective compound of conscious pop
writing with near-tangible grit. Their third and latest recording, Rocky P, is a work of which they can be truly proud. The backlash-proof sturdiness of Guided By Voices and the upbeat thrill of the Wedding Present are recalled but perhaps not depended upon. They hit all the right chords, sing with pure sincerity and produce the most agreeable ranges of energy.
3x4
Erasing Clouds
"As an Indian sun burns up the past / these ghosts become old hat". Schooner begins the album with the lovely "Indian Sunburn," with soft guitars and organ tones supporting a repeating melody, sung in a hushed but direct voice by singer Reid Johnson. The song circle backs around; when it's on I feel like it could go on forever and I wouldn't care. I get a similar effect from Schooner's more rollicking pop-rock song "Birds and Other Creatures", a looking-back song with nature imagery and rising and falling harmonies which ends on a vaguely lovelorn and bittersweet note: "Have you waited all along for me / well you're free," Johnson sings, accentuating his words with hammering guitars.
You Forget About Your Heart
The Onion
"North Carolina's Schooner plays classic indie-pop on its debut disc, You Forget About Your
Heart (Pox World), with obscurely confessional lyrics, sparkling melodies, and a strong sense of atmosphere drawn mainly from the record collection of bandleader Reid Johnson. Johnson's Beach Boys/Red House Painters fusion works best on ethereal tracks like 'Long Long Time' and 'Trains And Parades.'" Noel Murray
Salon.com
" I love the organ on this song, which blips dippily and nonchalantly along, even as the vocals make an unexpectedly emotional, Arcade Fire-y burst into the chorus -- and a very fine chorus it is too..."
Left off The Dial
"The breadth of variety that Schooner offers is mighty impressive....Schooner manages to reinvent its sound over and over again...."
Skyway Zine
Schooner has mastered an effortlessly catchy, structurally impeccable brand of indie rock that
marries mid-'90s angst with updated Shins-ish accessibility...
GQ
"Impressive debut, heavy on the lo-fi melody and bratty thrash..."
Copper Press
"... reminiscent of Guided by Voices, My Bloody Valentine, Archers of Loaf, The Smiths. The
quality of frontman Reid Johnson's songwriting is consistently high. No lulls, no hints of attempting to cover a lack of inspiration, no filler, not a single welcome overstayed. Classic stuff, in other words, and that more than compensates for the brevity. And the sequencing is a model of its kind: every song is exactly where it belongs. This is why the Schooner debut entered my stereo two weeks ago and hasn't come out since. I truly relish every listen..." - Eric J. Ianelli.
The Philidelphia Weekly
It's been more than a decade since the North Carolina triangle of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill yielded the nationally known scene that included Superchunk, Polvo and Archers of Loaf, and spawned Merge Records. Lately, though, I've sensed a second coming. Exhibit A) the Raleigh band Schooner, whose You Forget About Your Heart (Pox World Empire) hit me like a ton of bricks and was voted one of 2004's unknown pleasures by GQ. Just eight songs long, it's steeped in the same stumbling, organ-drenched fuzz-pop of the Walkmen and the Rock*A*Teens....
Early 4track recordings:
Independent Weekly
If you ever wished that The Smiths had a Willie Nelson proclivity and that Harry Smith's folk
collections--had inspired them to record an album in a Kentucky log cabin, Schooner may be your bag of hooks. Reid Johnson writes simply chorded, plainly-stated songs that sound like they may be lost love letters to some forgotten paramour. The tunes come complete with a girder of faint guitar noise and simple but essential keys courtesy of the bard's sister, Kathryn. –Chris Scull |
