Citing many of the top indie bands around as influences, two Tufts musicians are playing at the top of their game.
The Main Drag is a collaboration between Tufts student Adam Arrigo and ex-Tufts student Matt Levitt. Their richly orchestrated indie-folk rock is a masterful fusion of both experimental and familiar sounds.
"Simmer in your Hotseat" is an album that is surprisingly disarming in its ability to strike a personal note on just the first few listens. Arrigo, the band's songwriter and producer, met Levitt, violinist and arranger, at Tufts in 2002. Though Levitt has since transferred to UPenn, he made regular trips to Boston to complete the album. Arrigo began producing "Simmer in your Hotseat" last summer, drawing on material gathered over the past two years. The haunting track "Admit One" was the product of their
first successful recording session and caught the attention of junior David Buivid, head of Boston-based indie label Endless Recordings. The Main Drag is now signed to a record label, and "Simmer" was released late last semester.
The album's title was taken from an '80s "sittercise" tape that Arrigo used while working as a music therapist in a mental hospital. As many patients could not leave their wheelchairs, they performed exercises from a sitting position while listening to illustrative instructions such as, "Get ready to ride your bicycle!" or, "The cow's udders are in front of you....Okay, now milk! Milk that cow!" One instruction, however, continued to baffle both Adam and the sittercisers - "Okay, there's hot oil on your seat ... Now simmer! Simmer in your hot seat!"
This facetious piece of trivia provides the story behind an interesting album title, but should not be taken as a reflection of the duo's album; their music contains enough angst to bring an entire vat of oil to a boil. For the most part, their work seems to draw its inspiration from more somber aspects of life, such as depression, debilitation and disappointment.
Levitt's violin arrangements carve out the emotional depth of the songs and are a powerful expression of the dichotomy of yearning and resignation that comes with disappointed hopes. It is to the duo's credit that the subtle is balanced with the straight-forward on this album. Arrigo's lyrics are often frank and direct; "My sweetest dreams leave me so tired," he sings in "Tunnel Lights" while Levitt's violin provides an appropriate background soundscape.
Many of the tracks are infused with a sense of melancholy, though the gloomier aspects are lightened with a few more upbeat songs. The cuttingly lonesome aspect of "Admit One" is a contrast to tracks such as the hopeful and mellow "Tax Season" or "Famous Last Words," where a piano intro gives way to fast strumming and Arrigo's urgent vocals, which on this track in particular recall Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder in his "Vitalogy" days.
The duo cites bands such as Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse and Elliott Smith as their influences. Sure enough, give "Disappointed You" a listen and you will hear the soft strumming and resigned vocals characteristic of Smith, while "I'll Drink To That," which comes across as something of an indie-rock version of the waltz, doesn't fail to bring to mind Smith's own "Waltz #2." The folk influences are there too - "Withold" ends nicely with what sounds like an Irish folk melody.
Levitt's violin often sets The Main Drag apart from general indie-rock fare, so "Simmer" is worth a listen even if you've been inundated by the recent explosion, exemplified by Smith, Modest Mouse, and the Shins.
