Bryan Scary & The Shredding Tears, Refined Yet Indistinct

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 1, 2009 4:20PM

Bryan Scary & The Shredding Tears' Fight Of the Knife showed promise. It leaned towards a glam aesthetic while simultaneously showing an affinity for more straightforward power pop, but the results ended up muddled, making it an enjoyable if slightly nondescript listen. With their follow up EP, Mad Valentines, the band has certainly found the focus they were missing and have put together a compelling collection of pop songs that zig and zag through genres while maintaining a common stylistic thread.

The glam is still slightly there in Scary's nasal vocals, but there's more of a pristine '70s vibe to the tracks, more straightforward and muscular than androgynous. Multi-tiered ELO vocals swell in the background, punctuated by bursts of guitar and the internal stage is awash in silver boots and leather wristbands.

Of course the downside to this approach is its difficult to carve out a distinct enough voice to separate you from the past. On one hand we're always going to find finely crafted power-pop housed in pristine and painstaking production to be a joyous listening affair. But while the sound is now focused the band's vision still seems scattered. After the opening T. Rex / ELO styled stompers, the tableau suddenly gives way to a frothy orchestral Beatles-esque cloud of a song. Thee technical prowess can't be argued but ... we're not exactly sure who Bryan Scary & The Shredding Tears actually want to be.

We're going to check them out at Schubas on Saturday, September 5, in the hopes that their live show might offer a few clues absent from their recorded work. We can see the band is gradually working towards something engaging on a sentimental level, and are wowed by their songcraft skills, but what we really want to see is if there's a beating heart underneath it all or they're just powered by a really kick ass rock and/or roll encyclopedia.

Bryan Scary & The Shredding Tears plays Saturday,, September 5, at Schubas, 3159 N Southport, 10 p.m., $10, 21+