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Lead singer-songwriter Sean Kelly had a degree in nothing, only odd construction and painting jobs to fall back on, but as he says now, “What else was I supposed to do?” Instead of sending out resumes, he wrote many heartfelt songs about ongoing reflections of love and celebration, — The irony of human grief and hope, Feel Us Shaking. Kelly kept on writing and shuffled the lineup, and in one of those moments that make up for all the Rock Brain children in the world, The Samples stumbled onto a sound of its own. The Last Drag, the 1993 reanimation of The Samples, was a brilliantly minimalist rock album about love (or the lack of it). It was hardened but not ironic, tense but not jagged, smart but not so smart that Kelly couldn’t sing, Every Time! to get his point across. The songs were about small things—girlfriends, Marilyn Monroe and little silver rings—but they contained a multitude of emotions, and the music was so melodic that listeners were reminded just how great rock could be. CD titles and songwriting that make up The Samples musical journey are as emotional and pure as the first Colorado snow. Titles such as The Samples self the titled Blue CD, Underwater People, The Last Drag, Autopilot, No Room, Here and Somewhere Else, Out Post, The Tan Mule, Light House Rocket, Transmissions from the Sea of Tranquility, Sparta, Landing On The Sidewalk, Return To Earth, Anthology In Motion and the most recent Seventeen, unpretentiously captivate the listener. Word spread, and 2001’s equally good Return To Earth enlarged the cult. As with R.E.M in the late ‘80s, one senses that The Samples could be not just a distinctive band but the rare distinctive band that is also popular. Kelly is sequestered at home in Burlington, Vermont, adhering to a strict writing regimen in order to get a new album out by January 2004. “I try to get up early, have some cereal, take a shower and then don’t talk to anybody for twelve hours,” he says. “It’s really easy.” Kelly has written twenty songs for this new CD, but feels only ten of them will make the album. “There’s great melodies’ going on in a lot of them. My favorite songs are minimal—Rocking in the Free World, Let It Be, Comfortably Numb. Those songs face the world, but they do it with just a few instruments. I can’t explain why,” he says, “but that’s really all you need.”
~Courtesy of
www.thesamples.com |
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