Request Of Vinyl..Big Wreck/In Loving Memory Of

daBrun wants Big Wreck! Well Big Wreck it is……

So 1994 and i remember it well ,Tbone bought a Ibanez guitar and a Fender amp when we were playing in the Current River Band. We againest better judgement attempted to play Won’t Get Fooled Again by the Who! ( I had no business playing Entwhistles bass lines) Since we didn’t have a keyboard player  Tbone messed around with his guitar sound and came up with a real cool sounding part on his guitar where he could do that synth part on his guitar…what the hell does this have to do with Big Wreck you say well….

THE OAF- begins with lead guitar singer songwriter dude Ian Thornley doing that same guitar noodling in 1997 that Tbone was doing in 1994 hahaha….at the beginning of The Oaf for about 20 seconds! Every time I hear it it reminds me of Tbone,had hung low screwing around with different tones etc! Haha.. Ok enough of that, Big Wreck crashes out of the gate with this heavy kinda WHOish riff. This is a great track. You know by listening to this that Big Wreck (Thornley/ Brian Doherty-guitar/Dave Henning-Bass/Forrest Williams-drums) that these guys are talented musical cats! Word on the street was that these guys attended the Berklees Music College in Boston and hooked up! A great leadoff track and one that makes everyone especially in Canada take notice! Bonus points for the mandolin being played underneath the chorus!

THAT SONG- ahhh,my pal  DaBrun I think  this is his favourite song on this album and well why wouldn’t it be? DaBrun loves the line “it’s always been that way,a pocketbook Brando” That Song is great display of a melodic verse driven by drums and Thornleys cool rock voice and than when it hits pre chorus big time power chords (ala the sound of the day)big big crunchy guitars and than Thronley puts the tune in chill mode when he sings the line” So you crank that song,it may sound doom,so just leave the room” ahhh man this is a classic track that still holds up well today! DaBrun you crazy PocketBook Brando You!! The video posted is real good check out these guys playing with Thornley especially the other guitarist by the name of Pete Thorn who is a top dog rent a guitar hero for many a artist! Ian should roll with these guys man…there awesome! Ian tells Ya in the song to crank That Song …..so whadda waiting for??!

LOOK AT WHAT I FOUND-some real slippery slide guitar starts off track 3 and the verses are laid back with Thornley just relaxing vocally and the bass and drums crank this song into gear by the chorus! Keep your Ears below the ground, take a look around …Look What I Found  Ian sez….cool acoustic strumming…..just love how this song builds and builds and man some cool wah pedal…hurray for wah!

BLOWN WIDE OPEN- this is trippy great tune..Thornley doesn’t write sugary coated power ballads,he writes em with some ooooooomph! Blown Wide Open is a great tune and example of Oooooomph!  Blown Wide Open just rocks along but a simple rocks along ..you know the Guns still smoking …Blown Wide Open! These dudes like i said can play at any speed!

HOW WOULD YOU KNOW-almost Zep like(too my ears anyways) some real neat textures in the sonics. For young guys at the time the Wreck boys carry the torch high for 70s rock! But don’t get me wrong here folks! Big Wreck make it there own deal!

OH MY-cool use of drums and of course the guitars acoustic/electric and this song goes from chill to heavy max back to chill in milli seconds! Oh My is great and a different change of pace….

UNDER THE LIGHTHOUSE- this is a cool slowzee kinda of tune! Thornley and Doherty are cool at doing some guitar noodling in this track and it’s ok not to overkill everything in site with overplay! They add to this track! Real cool song…laid back, reminds me of summer this song does….and of course the use of the word  Lighthouse is a added plus!

FALL THROUGH THE CRACKS- Some loud kinda clanging noise starts off the song and than BAM…..guitars and rock volume at full throttle! This song is a real hard rock drivin song! No nonsense and the Wreck boys will Wreck you up real good if Ya double cross or piss Em off! Crank this one…..

WASTE-hey man some good ol mandolin and now boom all the instruments are onboard and is it me or is Thornley scorned here by someone I mean this whole record must have been therapeutic for him! (Shit if I had done a relationship record back in yesteryear it would have sounded like Pink Floyds The Wall mixed with Poisons Look What The Cat Dragged In.)This song builds up and takes off towards the middle of the track and just shifts gears….Big Wreck doesn’t play it safe and I like that as you don’t know what’s around the corner musically with them!

BY THE WAY- more acoustic and this is a throwback sonically to the 70s big time! Listen to the drums on this track! Cool groove by Forrest Williams. Well played……

BETWEEN YOU AND I- some deep down low dirty bass action leads the charge on this track as where headed towards the finish line! This one has tones of grunge riffing but Thornley has a deadly knack for writing catchy hooky melodic chorus’.

PRAYER-is a slow builder of a tracker and a real catchy and listen to this one on the headphones…tons of guitars some cool keys and power riffs all rolled nicely into this rock ditty! Shit man great material Thornley hosed out of failed  relationships!

OVEREMPHASIZING-how about a 7 minute end of the album jam out! This has elements of Soundgarden to me like from  there Superunknown album! This is epic and the all 4 Wreck guys are locked and loaded to kick out the  doors on this final track! Love the slide guitar during the chorus! Nice feedback to end the Wreckord!

IN CONCLUISON- Big Wreck stormed out of the gates with a keeper of a debut and man me and Tbone took notice! I mean great catchy hooks/ well written songs/cool throwback not over done  production(take a bow Matt Dematteo and Chris Wardmen along with the Wreck guys) These guys made us instant fanboys…..