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Roman Candles
Last Exit in Berkeley
Aztec Records
Yorba Linda's Roman Candles continues its steady campaign at low-key releases with a new tape for 2011–but in a change, it's actually a solo acoustic collection by bandleader Christopher Gordon, recorded for the most part in, indeed, Berkeley. Given the band's past releases have often been about changed ideals, memories and compromises moving from teenage life into adulthood, it's no surprise to see the theme continue here as well on songs like “Mixtape.” This time, though, as the liner notes and tape title indicate, it's about “graduating from college and not really wanting to.”
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The sense of hesitancy and looking back doesn't dedicate itself to
four years of partying, though. A song like “666” looks back at birth
and upbringing in Tustin and Orange, although the narrator, in this case, is
the devil. (Seems appropriate, really.) There's plenty more wry
humor throughout, despite a blunt song title like “Molestation Is
Not a Joke.” Who could blame him when he notes that he wishes the rent
was free?
Hearing Gordon on his own after all the collective band work conveys a
sense of isolation caught somewhere between comfort and constriction–something a song like “Rockstar” also lives up to in its lyrics. In
itself, Gordon's not-a-boy/not-a-man questioning is not new lyrical
ground per se (just ask Pete Townshend, Paul Weller and many more). After so many figures like John Darnielle and
followers like Conor Oberst have made the guy/guitar/home tape-recording
combination its own aesthetic, Last Exit to Berkeley doesn't reinvent
any wheels.
However, as much as the rest of his work, Gordon is about documenting
the impressions of his life as they happen with jokes–however gawkily or nakedly
expressed–leavening the impact but not necessarily providing any
kind of final resolution. As the final song notes, “Goodbye for Now,” but there will doubtless be something new soon.
The band can be reached via ro***************@gm***.com.
