UHF
If It Was Easy (Second Story)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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This is UHF's third album, our own Bill Holmes reviewed their second album last year and I STILL wasn't aware of them until just now. God, what a twit! I have some catching up to do. Portland, Oregon's best-kept secret, perhaps? Well, they got under my radar despite some of the sweetest sounding indie-psych-pop being performed today. Brothers Jeremy (vocals) and Jeff (guitar) Lordan, bassist Jeff Nelson and drummer Matt Johnson have a remarkable chemistry that works as well up tempo as it does on lofty, dreamy pieces. The world they create within their music is filled with beauty and light, and the occasional swear word slips in with a perfect rhyme that would even make Falwell say "Um, okay, that actually fits." The pop is fine and dandy, but, for my tastes, UHF are at their best when they slip into the surreal, as they do so perfectly on "The Last Rays Of The Sun," not at all too long at 8 minutes. They create texture, sub texture, sub-sub texture, a few more, and layer them one at a time until you, the listener, have the option of which layer to float along on, run along on, or climb from one to another during the song. In headphones this is better defined but a whole lot more daunting. At the end of this sonic hurricane you're deposited in the gentle sounds of "These Footsteps," the album's closing number, a needed lullaby after the previous 8 minutes. If It Was Easy should be getting a lot of attention but it probably won't, and by now you know why. Indie versus major label. Big money versus no money. Time and again it's the no-money places where you'll find the best music, the bands who won't whore themselves and intentionally look or sound like everyone else. They know they're not going to get rich this way, but they hope some people hear them and enjoy what they do. Give it a shot.

© 2002 - DJ Johnson