Perhaps the most remarkable quality about Shoes` fifth studio album,
”Stolen Wishes,” is how much it sounds like the first, ”Black Vinyl Shoes,” released more than 12 years ago.
That`s not to say ”Stolen Wishes” sounds stale. Rather, it`s a triumph of will.
For a dozen years, the Shoes have been writing subtle, often splendid variations on the same song: the lead vocal is mixed way up so that every word can be heard; breathy harmonies fill out the chorus; ringing guitars, sometimes laced with a modicum of feedback, drive the melody; solos never overstay their welcome; the beat is insistent, often danceable, but unobtrusive.
That formula turned the homemade, independently released ”Black Vinyl Shoes” into an underground sensation in 1978, and pushed the follow-up,
”Present Tense,” into the Billboard Top 50. Critics gushed about the band`s gift for writing memorable melodies, the ”hooks” that had been missing from many rock songs since the `60s heyday of AM radio pop.
Subsequent releases sunk, however, as more dance-oriented styles took over the charts. The band`s last previous studio album, ”Silhouette” (1984), wasn`t even released in America.
So it was back to Zion, where the band rebuilt its career by building a new studio. The 22-song ”Shoes Best” on Black Vinyl Records turned the trick: It sold respectably (about 10,000 copies) and prompted the band to begin working on the LP that would become ”Stolen Wishes.”
”It took a long time,” guitarist Jeff Murphy said. ”But the response the album`s received in the last three weeks has been reassuring.” An initial run of 5,000 copies has already sold out, and the record is now on back order. ”For us, good songs never go out of vogue, no matter what year it is,”
Murphy said. ”Only fashions and production techniques change.”
”That`s why it was inspiring to us to see the success of the last Tom Petty album (”Full Moon Fever”) from last summer. That was just a great-sounding record, with great songs, melodies, harmonies-and it was a hit. We thought, `Thank God we`re not alone.`
”I think our `melodic rock,` for lack of a better term, has become more acceptable in recent years, with the rise of bands like R.E.M. and the Smiths on radio. There`s a sleeping giant in the record-buying population that really likes the three-minute radio pop song.”
”Stolen Wishes” contains 15 radio-friendly tunes. Murphy and brother John, who plays bass, and guitarist Gary Klebe each wrote five, though one would be hard-pressed to note any significant differences in style (guitar-driven pop), subject matter (love) or even vocal timbre (pleasant,
schoolboyish tenors). It`s as if these guys grew up obsessing over the same records (Beatles/Searchers-style British Invasion stuff from the mid-`60s) and the same fickle girls.
”The songwriting credits are the last vestige of individual credit within the band,” Murphy said. ”Everything else is Shoes, because there`s so much give-and-take. Our songwriting ideas feed off each other; we`re each other`s biggest influences.”
Occasionally, a song like Jeff Murphy`s lushly melancholic ”I Don`t Know Why” breaks the mold; it`s an existential meditation on a friend`s death and the album`s only true ballad.
Mostly, the songs on ”Stolen Wishes” subsume the personalities; the record celebrates craft rather than quirks, the primacy of melody and harmony rather than dance beats and gimmickry.
”We`re stubborn, because we really want this type of music,” Murphy said. ”When you`re in a car going to the beach, you hum a melody, not a drum beat.”
And with ”Stolen Wishes” blasting from the tape deck, the drive is a breeze.
– Rick Canoff, a friend and guiding light to numerous Chicago musicians during his all-too-brief life, remains a force on the local scene. The first annual Ricky Award-$1,500-will be bestowed upon singer-songwriter Mike Jordan Sunday at Orphan`s, 2462 N. Lincoln Ave. Funded by the Rick Canoff Memorial Foundation, the award is a boost to Jordan`s solo career. Best known as leader of the energetic Rockamatics, Jordan broke up the band and moved to Hawaii in 1988, when he discovered he had Krohn`s Disease. Now Jordan`s back, wielding an acoustic guitar and a new independently released cassette. Scott Bennett and the Obvious will perform. Admission is free.
– Take two members of the Slammin` Watusis (guitarist Clay Watusi and saxophonist Frank Raven) and a moonlighting Insider (guitarist Jay O`Rourke), add Crash Willy drummer Rock Attitude, mix in a few surprise guests and what do you get? Something called Big Willy T. and the Watusis. The boys will play their variation on a grand Chicago tradition-the blues-Saturday at Czar Bar, 1814 W. Division St.
