The January Taxi - Keep Quiet, They Might Hear Us

Many times a band can ruin their chances of grabbing a potential new fan by not starting off strongly enough. If you're a rock band, and you don't wow your audience right off the bat, you're setting yourself up to work twice as hard to gain their attention later. The January Taxi seem to do just that on their disc Keep Quiet, They Might Hear Us. You're greeted with the song "Ashtray Parade," that is apparently considered the strongest song from the disc judging from the available downloads of the song on the band's site and from their label, but the song would induce heavy head bobbing at best. Followed by "Girls With Six Strings," you find yourself starting to doubt that the band is anything beyond a straight ahead, run-of-the-mill, chord progression rock band. Not until the disc hits "Jome" - the album's quiet/loud song - do you start to get a feel for the fact that the band has a few more tricks up their sleeve than you expected. Some nice vocal production, subtle guitars mixed with the occasional outburst, and the band finally has your attention. The trend continues from there with "Star Light The Sun", "Where It was", and "Threading The Needle" - all of which show that the band is capable of a bit more than they are letting on. Overall, the harmonic vocal arrangements that pop up every so often, the bittersweet lyrics, and the penchant for straight-forward no-thrills rock reminds me of Knapsack or The Jealous Sound. Hopefully the band won't take its own advice on keeping quiet and will branch out to new sounds; it certainly seems like they are capable. [www.thejanuarytaxi.com]