Amateur Radio Operator

It seems like everyone between the ages of 13 and 21 got a flannel shirt for Christmas in 1994. Seattle music was blowing up. Marketers, industry executives, and other suits struggled to contextualize what was happening in popular music. Words like ‘alternative’ and ‘grunge’ started to appear on those little genre identifier catalogue signs in mainstream music retail chain stores. It was an exciting time for music because the masses were willing to embrace previously unimagined juxtapositions of music styles like never before. It seemed like anything could happen. Amateur Radio Operator beckons the listener to dig that flannel shirt out of the closet and throw it on. It is warmer and more comfortable than you remember.

Sirens of Titan, Amateur Radio Operator’s first full-length album, has been called “grunge/country” and compared to the likes of Tom Waits, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and My Morning Jacket. The best comparison is to another Seattle band with major country/western influences: the Meat Puppets. Like the Meat Puppets, ARO has an acoustic, Appalachian back-porch vibe at its core, provided by singer/guitarist Mark Johnson, drummer Mike Bayer, and bassist Chris Early. Producer Kevin Suggs’ pedal steel adds classic Nashville twang while cello and upright bass add warmth and texture. Super fuzz reverb guitars and organic rhythm samples stratify and layer the sound into a deep, wide sonic ecosystem. Songs start simple and acoustic, slow-burn and simmer while twisting and turning through different tempos, and finally expand into planet-size space with grungy ever-buzzing guitar feedback.

Archeologists have found a way to “play” ancient sounds inadvertently recorded into clay pots as the potters spun and formed them long ago. It’s the same principle that causes a needle to bring sound out of a spinning vinyl record. ARO’s world is an empty, dilapidated cityscape but with hope and care they seek to find meaning through musical connections mined from the rusty metal and broken cement of the modern world like those archeologists with their old pots.

The first track of the album, “Watershed”, introduces the listener to the beautiful, twangy pedal steel right up front as Johnson sings about hearing ancient languages through the radar and how “the good things’ll come once in awhile, but the bad things seem to always stay in this town.” Later Johnson wonders, “Are you still hooked on leaving this place as fast as you can?” It seems that in Johnson’s view, here and now may be flawed, but everywhere else is just the same, so why not bust out the guitars and play a few good ole’ foot-tapping tunes?

“Canvas Bag” starts as a slower ballad then switches gears to an upbeat fuzzbox jam. “Dead Air (Sirens of Titan)” only hints at the depravity and decay found on big city streets and in small town homes when Johnson sings of the “sidewalks and their stories and the rust that’s in your heart” over astral rhythm samples reminiscent of a Modest Mouse ballad and Suggs’ steel guitar. He asks, “What if all of the boys and girls could get out now and come back home?” The answer is “a midnight DJ plays a song from her favorite unknown band and it wakes you up from your winter dream and brings the dead air back to life.”

ARO cover Minor Threat’s song “Screaming at a Wall.” In this song you hear ARO’s solution to overcoming the walls that people build between themselves: scream at them until they fall down. For Acoustic Radio Operator, communication can enliven the sad world and restart rusty hearts.

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