Philadelphia Weekly

MUSIC > LOCAL MUSIC

A-Sides Ways

A local band makes the flip side superfluous.

By Doug Wallen

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Mar. 23, 2005

As one might imagine, songs so stacked with studio tricks can't be faithfully recreated onstage. "We can't make the record happen live," says Cosentino. Instead of having Barthmus split his time between guitar and piano during shows, the band is on the lookout for a keyboardist. Founding member Mike Fleming, who plays bass on the album, was recently replaced by George Sabatino.

If the A-Sides' live shows won't swell quite to Pet Sounds proportions, they'll at least summon the rat-a-tat vitality of the band's earlier work, though the guys say the songs they've written since recording Hello, Hello are less likely to draw so many mentions of the '60s.

McTear agrees that there's more to the band. "When you really listen to the album," he says, "sonically, I think it's much more early '90s." He compares "Here and There" to influential shoegazers Swervedriver and Ride.

Barthmus, meanwhile, is pleased with the Shins comparison. "That's more the direction we wanted to go, rather than just being like a mod specialty band," he says. "A lot of our favorite records are '60s stuff, but it was more of a starting point. We always knew that we wanted to progress and make the band what-ever we wanted-without putting any kind of limits on it."

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A-Sides CD Release Party
Sat., March 26, 9 pm. $8. With Enon + Swearing at Motorists. Khyber, 56 S. Second Street. 215.238.5888. www.thekhyber.com

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