Dan Bryk
Lovers Leap
Maximum 10
Farming a plot of land somewhere between the piano narratives of Randy Newman and the pop eccentricity of They Might Be Giants, Lovers Leap is a winner-take-all gambit by Canadian Dan Bryk to reclaim music for the geeky and lovelorn. And, for the greatest part of 50 minutes, he succeeds. Bryk avoids the pitfalls of the twee and cutesie-poo by injecting his twinkling tales with sugary-good rock guitars and computer tomfoolery. At the same time, Lovers Leap purges a lot of his "recollected teen angst," without seeming at all trite.
"Mark Trummel v2.0" starts out on a goofier note than most artists would care to try, penning a fan letter to a computer game-programmer whom Bryk imagines "driving fancy sports cars / and doing lines of coke in the sand." The best songs on the disc strike a balance between the honest and the cheeky: "She Doesn't Mean a Thing to me (Tonight)," takes a fairly sarcastic remark and grounds it in the simple honesty of a new relationship, while "BBW" expounds on the love of "Chunky Girls," without invoking the deprecation of Newman's "Short People."
Overall, Lovers Leap melds the over-the-top with the sublime, while artfully displaying a wealth of talent and an encyclopedic knowledge of both pop-song craft and content. Dan Bryk shows that you can have your cake and eat it too, and even possibly get laid out of the deal if you're lucky enough.
If you like this, you'll love: The American Flag, Just Like Friends; Frisbie, The Subversive Sounds of Love
Rating: 7
Q:Your song Mark Turmell v2.0 tells the tale of your childhood dream of being a computer programmer. Do you ever regret choosing the career of rock star instead?
A: Uh... rock star? More like rock dupe! (laughs) I would have the sports car and Coke by now if I'd simply engaged the left side of my brain a bit more. My mom keeps reminding me I'm in my "peak earning years", as if I didn't know that already. Kids! Don't be fooled by those DMX videos... there's no money in pop music, unless you own the label. But it sure as hell beats a real job, I wouldn't trade it to be a desk jockey again.
Q: You recently played dates in Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. How was touring in Japan? What was your wierdest experience? Your most pleasant?
A: Japan is amazing! Everyone was so nice, the audiences, the promoters, the Jicks, the record store employees...
I think the hotel room in Osaka with the 24-hour, seven-day-a-week all-Elvis Aaron Presley radio channel was a little obsessive. I'd never heard Elvis do the Carpenters' "Solitaire"... that was nice.
Most pleasant? Hmm... many boxes of Glico Kalpo, washed down with chilled black coffee-in-a-tin, preferably the brand that Stevie Wonder endorses... was that called "Fire"?
Q: Do you think you have a shot at being "Big in Japan?" (note: BIJ has been best defined as gaining popularity on a much grander scale in Japan than in one's home country--for example, in Japan, C. Thomas Howell and Michael Pare have their own sections at video stores)
A: They had to like me somewhere! I prefer to think of myself in the company of Momus, Curt Boettcher and Gilbert O' Sullivan as fortunate recipients of the BIJ syndrome. Are you serious about C Tommy Howell having his own video section?
Q: Are there any Ontario-or-Canada-based bands that we should know about and begin worshipping soon?
Q: Too many to mention! You already probably know Ron Sexsmith, John Southworth and Harem Scarem (giggle) so check out The Bicycles, Kathryn Rose, The Golden Seals, Jack Breakfast and Danny Michel. www.umbrellamusic.com is the best site to worship Canadian bands!
Q: What's next for Dan Bryk?
A: Sleep, followed by strong mochaccino, some light exercise, a morning spent at the piano, and perhaps a late afternoon at the bookstore browsing Billboard and The Baffler. I will drive home, prepare a delicious meatless dinner entree, and then feel guilty about procrastinating all day.
I honestly haven't thought that much farther into the future, but I hope it will involve music, food and love.