The Future Is the Future

Sandra Black are in a way my first Morgantown band. I heard them before I ever moved here, and nearly everyone who's ever been in the band went to my high school in Charleston (current and ex-guitarists Brian Newruck and Corey Bicanich being two exceptions). They've been around far longer than that, but I picked up on them a while after their first album's release, and when I moved here 4 or 5 years ago I remember them as a band who made complex, layered shoegaze, a genre named for the tendency of its member bands to stare at their feet instead of moving around on stage.

Five years or so later, and a matured Sandra Black took the stage at 123 Pleasant Street this past Friday to promote their second album, The 40 Ounce Confession. Describing Sandra Black to someone has gotten harder as they begin to sound more and more unique. Songwriter Billy Zweiner
has hollowed out the layered washes of his previous influences, leaving only gently throbbing bass lines and alternately chiming and jangling guitars. At times the guitarwork suggests the wintry pristine quality of Scotland's Cocteau Twins, others the gleeful gooey guitars of early-90s indie rock groups like Boston's Drop Nineteens, who remind me of a kid stealing the sugary icing off of the My Bloody Valentine cake.

But it's not 1992 anymore, it's 2005, and Sandra Black have melded the moody, taut emotions of bands like Reagan-era darlings Echo & the Bunnymen and their modern descendants like Interpol. Mind-bendingly complicated drums form a rickety skeleton rhythm which the band tightly stretch their melodies along. The tension and driving pace of the music makes numbers like title track "40 Ounce Confession" and "Evil" the perfect soundtrack to night driving. Zweiner's smoky voice gets so hot it practically sears the words into the song. Meanwhile, "AM Rock" breaks down into a stripped down acoustic guitar and piano jam that would have made the Bunnymen smile ear to ear with pride.

But all is not dire in the world of Sandra Black. Happiness has reached into their songbook and helped pull out songs like the unabashedly titled "Love," and the practically bouncey "Eighteen." My own personal favorite is the gentle, graceful "Downer Hill," a sweet interplay of Cocteau guitar chime and piano and a sprinkling of sleigh bells slip effortlessly down into drummer Billy Zweiner's hyperactive pummel and then back to a snail's pace which Sandra Black heap their guitar and piano melodies back on until it slides back into silence.

As far as I can tell, most of the songs on the new album had been played at Sandra Black shows in the past, and they all made an appearance at Friday's show. But beforehand the band wisely asked local one-man band J. Marinelli and four-piece Librarians to open. J. ran through a quick set including a couple new songs and covers in front of a rapidly growing audience, and Librarians swelled the ranks of the crowd with their glammy danceable grooves as anticipation mounted.

But it was Sandra Black who were the stars of the show Friday night, and as they comfortably worked their way through their set of new material, I remarked upon how amazingly tight they are, and always have been. Drummer Daniel Zweiner and longtime bassist Jason Henry's rhythmic interplay set the stage for the guitar fireworks by Bryan Newruck and Billy Zweiner's vocals and synth work. I won't go into the live show too much since I've written so much about the album, but the final treat came in the encore. It began with a personal favorite of mine, "Change of Atmosphere," and included two more songs from their first album that I can't remember them playing for ages. The pinnacle was surely "Nyabinghi Dancehall," ironically a song named after the club 123 used to be, years ago. And with that final closing number, the tale of a band who must by now be 10 years into their career came full-circle. Here's to waiting for the next chapter.