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Album Review
Puller has
really created an excellent Grunge/Rock album here. It's close to
perfection, sometimes easily listening, sometimes rock out grunge. The
vocals are passionate, and the instumentalists are talented. My
favorites on the CD are "Silent Film", "Out Of My
Head", and "Light In Eve's Time". However what makes me
angry is this phenominal effort by Puller will probably go all but
completely unnoticed. If you can ever find this CD you should pick it up
for sure. You should enjoy Puller if you like Creed, Quicks, Foo
Fighters, Sunny Day Real Estate, or For Love Not Lisa. Puller may not be
a well known band, but they definitely created one of the finest rock
records of the 90's. This album is full of hooks, start to finish, and
EVERY song is memorable. The lyrics are deep and heartfelt, and the
music is a nice mix of mainstream alternative rock with post
punk/hardcore. Excellent musicianship, tons of passion.
Grace Hotel
Overall rating:
Sugarless
1 Shut Off (2:50)
2 Last One Out (3:04)
3 Back & Forth (5:02)
4 6x6 (5:11)
5 Far Removed (4:14)
6 Just Enough (4:04)
7 #1 Fan (3:04)
8 Prodigal (3:52)
9 Super Size It (4:31)
10 Almost Always (4:51)
11 No Use Running (6:06)
Album Review
Tooth and Nail
presents another album for the Kenny G. lover in your family. ... Well,
perhaps not. In truth, Puller isn't just another band fresh off the
heavy/aggro-pop assembly line. Sugarless boasts some fine moments. The
band's overall sound is aggressive and ambitious. On songs like
"Shut Off," Puller treads similar territory to that of
venerable modern rockers like the Poster Children and Filter, with
airtight arrangements and jagged shifts in tempo and time. 'Airtight,'
in itself, is a good word to describe "Sugarless." There isn't
a whole lot of breathing room in the album's eleven tracks. The band
does work in some deft changes in dynamic amid the walls of sound, but
somehow, even the quiet parts are loud. "Sugarless" is very
much a 'band' album, as opposed to a project of the 'singer-songwriter'
variety. Mike Lewis' vocals often take a back seat to the overall energy
of the band's assault. That being said, the album's uncomplicated
production reveals Lewis to be a capable singer, particularly when a
song calls for intensity and emotion. The vocals are uncluttered and
clear from doubling or other studio trickery, and Lewis sings with
conviction.
The same
stripped-down approach suggests that Puller is a very solid, tight live
band. Crunchy, overdriven sheets of guitar swoop and bounce along as the
rhythm section pounds away at just about anything except a straight
two-and-four beat. This isn't a groove oriented album, overall, but
that's not to say that it doesn't rock. "6 x 6" and "#1
Fan" bring Puller closer to straight ahead rock and pop hooks. The
former even boasts a vaguely Stones-y sounding guitar riff. In this
setting, comparisons of vocalist Mike Lewis' delivery to that of
Silverchair become more obvious. Puller's lyrical emphasis is based in
the personal. At the same time, there's nothing immediately revealing to
the unfamiliar listener. Lewis broaches the occasional spiritual topic
with lines like "When will we see your love? We deny the old life.
I defend the new one," from "Back and Forth." This stuff
needs to be soaked in, within the emotional context provided by the
music. For those who are willing to bite off a little more than what the
average aggressive-young-band delivers, this is a worthy release.
~
Jeff Elbel
Puller(unofficial
homepage)
Biography
praisetv.com
Interviews
members.tripod.com
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Grace Hotel
Overall rating:
What's
Mine at Twilight
1 Hold on to Me (2:39)
2 Man on the Move (2:36)
3 She's the Girl (4:13)
4 Give Me a Ride (4:46)
5 First to Have (3:45)
6 These Days (4:44)
7 Heat of the Moment (3:04)
8 Two Can Play That Game (5:05)
9 Good Song (4:40)
10 If She's the One (3:31)
Album Reviews
The
band members in Puller are no strangers to the rock music scene, frontman Mike
Lewis has been through it all. The former vocalist/guitarist for the popular mid
nineties grunge band For Love Not Lisa has risen to the top, having shared the
stage with many popular bands including the Stone Temple Pilots and Green Day,
and then right back down with the quiet disbanding of said band after a
lackluster second release. After the demise of For Love Not Lisa, Mike
collaborated with their former roadie Geoff Riley, and formed Puller. Two
albums, one split ep and quite a few band members later, Mike and Geoff have
been left (amidst rumors of former Stavesacre guitarist Jeff Bellew joining) by
themselves again to take over the other instruments. Despite everything the
remaining two have created another great album that is a good follow up to
1998's Closer Than You Think. The opener, Hold on to Me, is an amazing rock song
that should be playing on Channel Z along with bands like the Foo Fighters and
the Smashing Pumpkins. Other good songs include She's the Girl and the closing
acoustic track, If She's the One. As you can tell by the song names, the lyrics
are mainly about girls, though other topics are dealt with. Mike is a seasoned
song writer and there is a certain depth to his lyrics, that, even though they
deal mainly with girls, don't grow old. The most memorable line is found in the
song These Days, "Now I want to live like Paul, but I think like Thomas,
and I'm more like Judas these days". While the lyrics don't grow old, some
of the music starts to, it's a good album, but some of the songs are just a
little too similar. This problem has plagued Puller since their inception but
thankfully this time its shorter, cutting it down to ten tracks was a good call,
as Closer Than You Think, with 13 tracks, really started to drag. Not as much
math rock as in the past, more straight ahead modern rock, Puller have matured
well, and I think we can expect more good music from them in the coming years.
~
Aaron Hughes
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