Metro Pulse/Eye on the Scene

A&E: Eye on the Scene

Comment
on this story

Local Review

Copper, The Fragile Fall

Local college radio listeners were captivated in 2000 by the lyric majesty and sad sweep of an anthemic modern rock single entitled “Miss December.” With graceful harmonies, seamless production, and a melody wrought from aural silver, “December” sounded like a definitive recording from a group of seasoned songsters, as opposed to what it actually was—a first-time effort from a newborn Knox rock outfit named Copper.

The promise of that early single—later included on the band’s worthy but sometimes uneven local release Exchange in 2002—comes to fruition now on The Fragile Fall, a full-length CD that offers solid evidence the band can sustain the same kind of savory, bittersweet lyricism over a full album’s worth of material.

There’s nothing risky about Copper’s brand of clear-eyed post-grunge pop rock; its like can be heard in any number of long forgotten mid-’90s modern rock one-hit wonders, and now in the dronings of nu-metal-lite crapmeisters from Creed to Nickelback. What sets Copper apart from others of its ilk are singer and principal songwriter Keith Wallen’s knack for creating near-perfect ear candy, and the band’s tendency to come off sounding pleasantly familiar, yet never stultifying or overly derivative.

Fragile tracks like “By Now” and “Inside Out” and “Where We Started” pulse with charm and visceral clarity, anchored in tightly-arranged, crystalline guitar tracks and the polished warmth of Wallen’s yearning tenor. Adept at infusing forceful rock with hooks and heart, Wallen and Copper unerringly navigate the narrow straits between gratuitous thud and radio-friendly saccharinity.

What the album lacks is a single track as compelling as “Miss December,” but that’s hardly a knock; “December” was a signature, a high-water mark the likes of which most bands will never approach, much less duplicate. What The Fragile Fall offers instead is a collection of songs that rarely falter, and always please.

Check out Copper at Blue Cats Friday, April 9, playing with 10 Years and Return to Self.

News of the (Intentionally) Weird

A recent string of unusual UT campus-based demonstrations can be linked to local flash mob/performance art saboteur Ninjas With Agendas, affirmed the group’s attorney-spokesman in an anonymous interview.

The attorney, a young man wearing sunglasses, camouflage pants and pink flip-flops, explained that NWA aims to launch a series of gutter balls into the bowling bunkers of status quo, drawing attention to socio-cultural margins by stepping outside of them. How, he asked, do the unassuming masses react when they pass, for instance, a row of flowerpots occupied by people holding tulips, or a group of smokers held at gunpoint by a woman with a fire extinguisher? What does it mean when half an hour into a lecture class, a stranger climbs out of a tiny cabinet at the front of the room, looks around skeptically, and walks out the door?

“The Ninjas are about breaking boundaries, people’s regular routines that they’re so entrenched in that they’re no longer even aware of them,” said the attorney. “It’s the need to stretch. Like after you drive for 12 hours, you want to stand up, but your butt hurts and it’s numb. You’ve got to stretch your butt out.”

He reported that reactions typically range from the positive, as when a crowd gathered to cheer on a mock street preacher delivering a spring break sermon from the gospel of Maxim, to the merely confused. Negative exceptions are limited to a faux kidnapping that was cut short by police intervention and a professor who expressed frustration on Valentine’s Day when his students became distracted by a synchronized mass make-out session outside the classroom window and he couldn’t get the blinds to close.

The attorney cited NWA’s biggest challenge as maintaining the momentum of onlooker curiosity in an environment where people with rigid schedules and “whatever” mentalities will walk past almost anything.

“You almost expect more weird things to happen on college campuses than you do at, like, Kroger. It’s interesting how quickly people become passive again. People become interested in the moment and then they desensitize, even with these outrageous ideas.”

Upcoming demonstrations are announced via email list serve, which presently goes out to approximately 60 people. With the group’s founding members’ impending graduations, the future of the Ninjas is uncertain, but they hope that “the heart, the essence of ninja-ism will live on” through the lives of those they have systematically unsettled and/or amused.

Go.

Thursday: Hey, it’s spring and Sundown is starting, this year, bigger than ever with Bela Fleck opening. Plus it’s free. Afterwards, check out the New Randall Brown Quartet at the Pilot Light.

Friday: The Ghosts rock out at Patrick Sullivan’s.

Saturday: If you’re under 21 and like to dance, make the insane ska festival in Market Square from noon to 9 p.m. If you’re older than 21 and like to dance, try Finnegan’s aWake Irish reels and jigs at Laurel Theater. Well, actually all ages are welcome at both shows!

Sunday: Sleep in late. Make a leisurely brunch with your lover, if you have one. If you don’t, make really strong Irish coffee and mope.

Monday: Sir, sir... It’s a pity you’re not here with me. You would understand everything. Look. The sea is all around. We are destined to sail forever. To live forever.

Tuesday: UT Chamber Orchestra at UT Music Hall.

Wednesday: King Missile at the Pilot Light.