Brooklyn-based John Guilt has a bio that reads like many a scrappy indie band’s–heavy on the “we played withs” and the “guest appearance on percussion by the triangle player from Veruca Salt”-type shit. It seems very difficult for unsigned bands to resist their common predilection to drop names in the vain hope that someone’s glimmer of recognition will manifest itself in a record deal, or, short of that, a blowjob.
But on the self-released By Any Other Name EP, all John Guilt has to do is play, and the result speaks for itself quite admirably. Like on any subdued, brush-drummed, country-influenced release, one will inevitably be reminded of people like Andrew Bird and Will Oldham (and Oldham’s most prodigious imitator, Jason Molina). On the first track, there’s a plucked violin and a phrasing sensibility that evokes Bird, and on “23 Revolutions,” one is reminded of one of Oldham’s more-passionate, less-nonsensical moments of intensity (“Riding,” e.g.). This seems like happenstance rather than affectation–John Guilt makes quiet indie rock, and the comparisons write themselves.
Singer Andrew Goldman is an excellent lyricist (“Oh, Mr. Bob Dylan / Why didn’t you like your name? / Trim those syllables and nothing will ever be the same”) and the mix, provided by drummer TJ Lipple (also of Aloha–see?) is supple enough that Goldman’s sweetly resonant voice is out front in exactly the right proportion.
This article appears in May 12-18, 2005.