Lean-To
Lean-To links…
This self-described “neo-fusion” band played sporadically and had an ambivalent relationship with the idea of a binding stylistic description, since 1992. The band started a hiatus when founding member Brad Rabuchin joined Ray Charles’ band…
Lean-To’s debut CD, Malarchitecture, features guest cameos by great Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira, singers Glen Phillips and Ellen Turner (on “The Kindness of Strangers) and Bruce Winter (on “Hungry Ghosts”), and tuba-ist Trey Henry. At root, it’s a two-guitar band with a multiple personality condition. Check out their or the Splendide-zine review.
Lean-To is: Brad Rabuchin, guitar and guitar synthesizer, Joe Woodard, guitars, Bob Mair, bass (or other pinch-hitters), and Tom Lackner, drums. Rabuchin is a busy fellow, plectricizing around Los Angeles , while Mair keeps busy in a delirious plenitude of areas, including work with the noted Nels Cline Trio. Lackner and Woodard keep off and on the streets of Santa Barbara.
“It’s as if rock-period Brian Eno and Frank Zappa at his kookiest were fighting over the radio dial. Lean-To offer up a unique, and not unpleasing, mix of the accessible and the avant-garde. A more grounded drummer would find them on poppier ground than they may want to inhabit.”
–blurb from www.listen.com
Lean-To, Malarchitecture
$12. (postage paid), HI-121
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Household Ink, P.O. Box 2093, Santa Barbara, CA 93120
1. Lincoln Logs (Woodard) (mp3) 2. Goleta Factor (Woodard) 3. Memory Garden (Lean-To) 4. The Beauty of Nuts (Woodard); Ellen Turner, vocal, Airto Moreira, percussion (mp3) 5. Luxury of Time (Woodard); Airto Moreira, percussion (mp3) 6. Gabriel (Lackner) (mp3) 7. Get Out and Stay Out (Rabuchin) (mp3) 8. Wig (Mair) (mp3)9. Hungry Ghosts (Lackner/Woodard); Bruce Winter, vocal 10. #26 (Rabuchin) 11. Barter a Samba (Woodard); Airto Moreira, percussion (mp3) 12. Bring Grandma (Woodard) (mp3) 13. The Kindness of Strangers (Woodard); Glen Philips, vocal, Ellen Turner, vocal, Trey Henry, tuba mp3
Photography and design: Kim Reierson
Back cover artwork by Sam Woodard
Copyright, 1998
the press notes:
“A decidedly deconstructionist attitude towards traditional jazz, rock, country and other elements gives the Santa Barbara quartet Lean-To’s Malarchitecture (Household Ink HI-121; 66:30) an apt title. From the ragged-edged funk fusion of `Goleta Factor,’ to the country-flavored gospel `Gabriel,’ the band creates distinctive, memorable moods in a style all its own. Malarchitecture’s highlights emphasize contrast-`The Beauty of Nuts,’ for example, builds on a `reggae-western’ rhythmic shape with searing guitar inserts and clip-clop effects, then adds a deadpan-sincere Ellen Turner vocal for yet another color. Another particularly cool piece, `The Kindness of Strangers,’ surrounds the world-weary lead of vocalist Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket) with dark, off-kilter guitar and tuba. These twists and turns, combined with inspired atmospheric touches like the disturbed vibey percussion on `Hungry Ghosts’ will keep listeners guessing and anticipating what’s to come.
“I like the quirkiness of the arrangements and odd sounds plus most of the songs have solid melodies and are not merely vehicles for showing just how fast these guys can play. If you enjoy improvisational rock music that leans more towards the esoteric, Lean-To is recommended.”
-Richard B. Kamins, Cadence
“Math rock meets fusion… I don’t know how Malarchitecture will play with finicky Jazz People, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.”
– George Zahora, Splendid e-zine
“A prevailing aroma of technique drifts from the internal kitchen of Malarchitecture, an aroma seasoned with melody blending avant jazz, rock, and atmospheric hybrid soul.”
-Mark Fahey, “Positively State Street,” Santa Barbara Independent
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