For their first disc since 2004's Pigs Never Fly, Connecticut's Cable have spread their musical wings. They must have figured it's high time to get out of the sludge and noise rock they've wallowed in for so long and, luckily, it works. This concept disc, based upon the story of a convict named Jim who escapes a mountain state penitentiary and travels to California, starts off in the slow sludge and mid-tempo noise rock Cable have mastered. The fourth tune, "Failure Comin' Down," is Skynyrd gone real bad-ass, a sound Cable have always flirted with. But "Welcome to Dickson" almost sounds pleasant, or at least resigned; it's melodic and epic. Then shit gets real weird, with "Outside Abilene" toying with '90s alt-rock sounds, "Palm Sunday" attempting even more straight-laced melodic rock and "Running out of Roads to Ride" sounding like world-weary, ultra-heavy Southern rock; it's an awesome album climax piece. The disc closes with the title track, which starts out with stripped-down blues with guitar and strained vocals - this is how the blues should sound. It all ends with a loud Cable groove just to remind us that they still can. But let's hope Cable keep experimenting, because The Failed Convict is a success.
Where did these new elements of your sound come from?
Drummer Vic Szalaj: We spent a little over a year writing the album, so we had plenty of time to manipulate song structures to best fit the album as a whole. Of course, the older you get and the more you play together, you aren't as afraid to test new waters, which we certainly did here.
The album starts out like traditional Cable then slowly gets into these different sounds. Was that intentional?
Because it's, for lack of a better term, a "concept" record, we paid close attention to song flow because each song on the record directly relates to the previous and the next. And it was simple; we knew which song should go where even before all the lyrics were written.
You guys have been on-again off-again for some time now. Are you in full-time band mode now or is it just day-by-day?
We gave up on titles for ourselves. If we decide to take a break, we do. If we want to record an album, we do. If we want to do shows, we do. There are too many variables in each of our lives to take it too serious and this way the passion and the urgency never go away.
(The End)Where did these new elements of your sound come from?
Drummer Vic Szalaj: We spent a little over a year writing the album, so we had plenty of time to manipulate song structures to best fit the album as a whole. Of course, the older you get and the more you play together, you aren't as afraid to test new waters, which we certainly did here.
The album starts out like traditional Cable then slowly gets into these different sounds. Was that intentional?
Because it's, for lack of a better term, a "concept" record, we paid close attention to song flow because each song on the record directly relates to the previous and the next. And it was simple; we knew which song should go where even before all the lyrics were written.
You guys have been on-again off-again for some time now. Are you in full-time band mode now or is it just day-by-day?
We gave up on titles for ourselves. If we decide to take a break, we do. If we want to record an album, we do. If we want to do shows, we do. There are too many variables in each of our lives to take it too serious and this way the passion and the urgency never go away.
