Robbers On High Street
Tree City (Scratchie/New Line)
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in Nashville
Scene, April
21-27, 2005
Critic's pick: Robbers
On High Street @ Alumni Lawn, Vanderbilt University, Thursday,
April 21, 2005
While the rest of the world was lamenting Spoon’s failure
to
follow up 2002’s Kill The
Moonlight,
Robbers On High Street were doing something about it. Released in
February, their
Tree City would be pretty tough to
differentiate from the genuine article in a blind listening test: if
the
unadorned rhythmic pulse of piano numbers like “Spanish Teeth” and
guitar chugs
like “Japanese Girls” and “Love Underground” didn’t fool you, you’d
certainly be
taken in by singer Ben Trokan, whose congested delivery is a dead
ringer for
that of Britt Daniel. Trokan’s band is a much more efficient beast,
though,
eschewing Spoon’s anything-goes arrangements for a fuller, more
straightforward
Television-plays-the-Zombies approach. Spoon may steal back some of
Robbers On
High Street’s thunder when Gimme
Fiction
is finally released on May 10, but until then, it’s still up in the air
as to whose
timing sucks more. – Marc Hirsh
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