Music
74 AMERICANWAY
NOVEMBER 1 2008
Talented, turbulent
rock bandOasis carves
out a vastly different
sound on
DigOut Your
Soul
, the group’s
seventh studio album.
ByKevinRaub
ChangingTheirTune
OASIS HAS MADE
several at-
tempts to shake things up by
turning its back on its traditional
formula of rousing choruses, im-
mense waves of layered guitars,
and Brit-pop melodies — most
notably on the disastrous
Stand-
ing on the Shoulders of Giants
in
2000. In just about every case,
the attempt failed. Yet the band
continued to sell out stadiums
on the coattails of a few of their
more traditional, flag-waving
choruses.
On the new
DigOut Your Soul
(Big Brother, $19), Oasis has
made a conscious effort to kill
not only its original formula but
the conventional verse-chorus-
verse song structure to boot.
And that’s not a bad thing.
“Bag It Up,” the best Oasis
album opener since
(What’s the
Story) Morning Glory
’s “Hello” in
1995, is a hypnotic driving force
of sonic sludge. The first single,
“The Shock of the Lighting,” is
the band’smost radio-unfriendly
song to date, but that doesn’t
make it any less addictive. “(Get
Off Your) High Horse Lady” is
a clapboard backyard revival
hymn — a tune that wouldn’t
be out of place on a Raconteurs
record. But the best track is “I’m
Outta Time,” a beautiful, intro-
spectivemasterpiece. Frontman
Liam Gallagher gently sings,
“Out to sea/It’s the only place
I honestly/Can get myself some
peaceofmind/You know it’s get-
ting hard tofly.”
There are a few stumbles on
the album: The lyrics drown in
the Noel Gallagher–sung “Fall-
ing Down,” and “To Be Where
There’s Life,” penned by rhythm
guitarist Gem Archer, is just
plain boring.
Overall,
Dig Out Your Soul
is
a work that gets in your head,
though sometimes for all the
wrong reasons. Its shadowy
undertones of psychedelia and
its irregular song structures
provoke questions rather than
inspire immediate humming and
toe-tapping. It’s a brave thing to
play Russian roulette with your
career. Sometimes it works, as
it didwith the Beatles’
Revolver
.
Consider this albumOasis’s gun.
Think of the nine-letter name of the
on-the-rise rock starwho spends his
spare time creating crossword puz-
zles. If you’re comingupblank, allow
us to introduce you to the answer:
Jack O’Shea (pictured second from
the left), lead guitarist and backing
vocalist for Bayside, a punk-rock
quartet based inQueens, NewYork.
An aspiring rock star since buy-
ing his first guitar at age nine, the
Boston-bred O’Shea also developed
an early taste for crosswords, as his
mother had a daily routine of doing the
Boston Globe
puzzle. “I always loved word
games, particularly Scrabble, and crosswords were just a natural progression,” says
the26-year-old.
A few years ago, O’Shea—who has passionately studied the crossword creations
of
NewYork Times
puzzlemaestroWill Shortz—made a large, hand-painted puzzle
as an art piece for a friend. Since then, he has spent hoursmakingpuzzles for himself
and for his pals, often customizing them for the recipients. (O’Shea completed the ac-
companying autobiographical puzzle especially for
AmericanWay
.)
Although he enjoys his hobby, music has always been his first love. In 2000, he
and somemusician friends formedBayside, and theband cut afive-songdemobefore
signingwithVictoryRecords in2003. Since then, thegrouphaswritten, recorded, and
toured “relentlessly,” O’Shea says. “We’ve always been a hard-workingband.”
While Bayside has never reached higher than 75 on Billboard’smusic charts, that
couldwell change this fall when the band releases
Shudder
, its fourth full-length al-
bum. “We aremakingan effort togrowmusically as abandbut todo it in suchaway
thatwon’t alienate existing fans,” he says.
ThoughO’Shea’spuzzlesmaynot have the sameeffect onpeople that his songwrit-
ing efforts do, he says that the twopassions areactuallyvery similar processes. “They
can both seem really easy until you feel that you’re almost done, and then you find
you’veworked yourself into a corner and have to start all over,” he says. “They can be
really rewarding and really frustrating, sometimes at the same time.”
Who says the life of amusician is all sex, drugs,
and rock and roll? JackO’Shea shareswith
us his surprising hidden talent. By J. Rentilly
JackofAll
Trades
THE
MONTHLY
MIX
Aplaylist to
get you
through
electionday
and the rest
of November.
JohnnieTaylor
,
“I Could
Never BePresident”
TheCompleteStax-Volt Soul
Singles, Vol. 2
, 1993
Kings of Leon
,
“Crawl”
OnlyBy theNight
, 2008
Super FurryAnimals
,
“ShowYourHand”
HeyVenus!
, 2007
TheSpintoBand
,
“Vivan, Don’t”
Moonwink
, 2008
