Loveless in the Midwest: The Otto Modest
on the local scene
Jarret L Green
Issue date: 1/26/05 Section: Entertainment
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But this is territory the Cape Girardeau band has already explored. Before previous drummer Eric Wilke joined the band a year ago, the other members, who have been together for about a year and a half, used a drum machine or took turns rotating onto the drums.
The evidence of this openness is still seen in the band's live shows, where between-song shifting of a member is combined with electronic beats. The band completes itself out of necessity. They don't need constant and structured roles, and their music reflects that. On a recent Friday night, the band was gracious enough to allow me to visit one of their practices.
Now that Wilke has left the band to focus on his family and career, Josh Evans, Collin Giles, Aaron "The Razor" Schafer and Ross Martin are struggling through shifting back to their former style of working together. This process has hindered their progress on a new full-length album, planned for release in mid-April. Wilke left when many of the new songs were ready, but now the band has to relearn each one in preparation for studio work on the follow-up to "The Wicked" EP (available at PMac and Hastings).
On "Wicked," the Otto Modest's most obvious influences are Radiohead, The Verve and other alternative Britpop, but more than sonic styling, the Otto Modest has been influenced by those bands' ability to transcend genre. They could be classified with loose terms like post-rock or alternative, but those do little to describe their sound. "The Warning" comes off as a slow dark country ballad about love and music, while "Country Mouse" could almost fit seamlessly onto "Kid A."
The songs for the new album, however, have the band moving in a slightly different direction. The post-rock work of bands like Mogwai and Sigur Rós, which lurked beneath the surface before, is now more pronounced. This album should reflect the band's live sound more directly.
