SHELLITO
Ingredients (Birtha)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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Shellito is a groove infected band on the Birtha label and prominent members of the current Philadelphia indie scene, seemingly poised to explode their following beyond the City of Brotherly Love. Their new album Ingredients, almost two years in the making, reads like a document of mature effervescent pop with the ambition of moving beyond tired "slacker" charm. Borrowing elements from other local acts such as The Photon Band (drummer Simon Nagle and bassist Jeff Tanner) and The After Dinner Mints (trumpeter Daryl Rothmond), band leader and namesake Mike Shellito packed up his studio and ensemble, then ventured down to the South Carolina woods for recording. The result was an uncompromising statement of musical vision that is anything but laconic.

The songs on Ingredients can be largely characterized as lyrical episodes, concerned with exploring the everyday, lending them an inside almost voyeuristic appeal. "Jim" is a light vignette about "the funny looking guy/ who buses tables there" at the Eatwell restaurant; "Virgo Torpedo" works as a patchwork of juxtapositions ending with an 'o' sound. With lines such as "pimento inferno/tomorrow concerto" it sounds like a quirky, lighthearted rendition of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." The song "All Right" is another highlight, with its somber guitars and haunting cinematic production. "Lima," the album's first single, is a hushed and swaying piece of introspection that has been receiving much radio attention in Shellito's hometown. Sometimes somber, other times manic, Ingredients, the follow up to 1997's For Sale, is packed with short cuts, long building intros and a bottomless bag of musical surprises.

Armed with a musical sound comparable to artists from Quasi to Simon and Garfunkle - "Orange and Green" with its playful harmony, is straight out of the Mrs. Robinson era - to Oasis, there is little on this disc which reveals itself as empty or commonplace. Granted there are moments when the lyrical tropes tend toward the deliberate and the psychedelia strained, but they are few and ultimately, Ingredients is a satisfying release that is well deserving of increasing attention.

[Pick this up at shellito.com.]

© 2002 - Erick Mertz