Little Miss Messy
Boring Stories for Naughty Children (2003)

Review by: Stephan Finch
Date: 9/15/03

Remember "progressive rock?" When I was spinning vinyl at my beloved college radio station during the late-80s, we called the eclectic pop we played "progressive rock," not "alternative rock," which is obviously the better known label now. But at the time, I thought progressive rock worked better, because it meant more.

See, maybe I was naïve, but it seemed to me that REM, the Violent Femmes, 10,000 Maniacs, the Pixies and They Might Be Giants were doing more than just creating an alternative to the big-hit bands like Aerosmith or Whitesnake. As I sat there listening to Peter Buck's shimmering guitar or trying to work out exactly what Black Francis was singing about, I really believed I was bearing witness to, well, progress. Not just a new twist on the boring old song formulas, but something genuinely new. And now, I find I miss the experimentation of the 1980s. Where did you go, IRS Records?

Enter Little Miss Messy. Their CD, Boring Stories for Naughty Children, on the North Carolina-based label Dalloway Records, is produced by, get this, Mitch Easter. Mitch Easter, for goodness sake!

Mitch Easter... Easter... Where have you heard that name, you wonder? Wonder no more. He produced many 1980's progressive rock bands like The Connells, Let's Active, Waxing Poetics. But it was Easter's work with REM that we still salivate over. He produced Chronic Town. Let me repeat: Chronic Town. That wonderful EP that we still listen to with amazement. And Murmur! Radio Free Europe, for chrissakes. Okay, just tell me to shut up and climb back into my hole now.

The point is that just like the brilliant work Easter did on those early REM albums, he (with, one presumes, the blessing of the band) has chosen on most of the tracks on this CD to limit the effects and put the music very "close" to the listener. That is, there's very little echo/reverb/ digitization here, so more of the music, mistakes and all, comes through. This is what commercial radio won't accept, and what a shame. I once heard guitarist Mark Ribot (best known for his work with Tom Waits, the Lounge Lizards) bemoan the excessive use of echo because of the "distance" it puts between the artist and the audience. I couldn't agree more.

If you liked the sounds coming out of Athens, Ga., and other college towns in the southeast in the 1980s, you'll find a lot to like in Little Miss Messy's songs.The driving bass and repeated guitar riff of "Where is My Mind?" reminds me of a terrific song called "Look Alive" by Pylon, a defunct band that was rival to REM in the early 1980s. One of the two potential hits on the album, "Sweet Stacy" starts with a riff honoring REM's "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" then turns in a different direction. The other potential single, the CD's opener, called "Wrong," is a mid-tempo folk/punk thing that has a towering chorus.

As always, the songwriting genius may belong to somebody else, but the band's success or failure will depend largely upon its singer. LMM's Carlotta Valdez, can sing about "fucking me sore" with real punk passion. But on several tracks, Valdez shows she really can sing, a bit sweet with a touch of growl. Valdez recalls (for me, at least) Martha Davis of The Motels or Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees. My colleague here at work, Evan Hessel, who is a decade my junior and by my own estimate 2.6 times as cool as I am, says Valdez' voice reminds him of Nina Persson, of The Cardigans.

I don't know if this means progressive rock is making a comeback, but I'm happy. Now if only they'd send me the vinyl...