Fine Steps

***FINE STEPS is the product of many days and nights spent writing melodies and chord progressions in the head of writer and player JULIAN ELORDUY (MAYYORS). The band boasts members Mayyors, GANGLIANS and G. GREEN, and hall hail from Sacramento. “While perfection is not something I nominally look for in music, the nine songs are a unified whole and the attention to the details–harmonies, bridges, choice of instruments, the mood of each piece, etc, etc–kinda staggers. Take the opener, ‘Dig Me In,’ for example. A snippet of Julian la-la-ing the guitar hook for 10 seconds, then, you are suddenly thrust into sounds that could be anywhere from a ’60s Nuggets comp to today. Hard, chopped, down-stroked guitar, Brit-Invasion styled till it comes to the chorus when it transforms into a Chills song and then back again. Fan-flipping-tastic. The influence of the Ganglian guys (KYLE HOOVER and ALEX SOWLES) is apparent on Boy’s Co.’s with their ‘retro-is-now’ sound a key part of why this record works so well—there is a familiarity (comfortable instead of nagging), more of an homage to an era than a blatant hipster rip. These guys know the history. Listen to ‘Lady Hume’ and tell me it couldn’t have been the next Jesus & Mary Chain 45 after ‘Never Understand.’ ‘Orestes’ is what I picture if the Clientele ever covered the Feelies. ‘Pardon Me’ sounds like if Pavement were Jonathan Richman’s backing band.”—Dennis Yudt