Local Exposure: Pokerface

Local Exposure
CD Reviews of Area Musicians

by Jason Timoll

Pokerface
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To the extent that Pokerface is a cool name for a band, I understand the reasoning for the name. There is, however, nothing kept secret until the end of this record. It is straight ahead rock and roll with a somewhat dated sound. The fact that many of the arrangements sound like early Eighties as opposed to late Eighties bodes well for the band only if they are believers in the cycle theory. As I would soon discover, the overall production is very solid, but the material does not take many exciting turns.

I decided, with this record, to read the insert before listening to the record — if for nothing but qualification. Enclosed in the CD insert are the list of lyrics, many thank you’s, and a particularly interesting, page long, message on the legalization of drugs entitled, “To the politically correct, this one is for you.”

According to this message, the band feels strongly that smoking marijuana is no more ominous than having Ritalin or Prozac prescribed to children. The band also claims that there is a corporate conspiracy behind the fact that our governments license and, in turn, profit from certain drugs while they deem illegal others that would be less easy to regulate. The message further states that the dynamic of violent drug-related crimes is fueled by the senseless enforcement of arbitrary laws created by the two major “partners in crime” in our society — the government and the media. With this in mind before listening to the record, I found myself surprised that the “free the weed” theme didn’t appear in the lyrics until track six. While I thought their ambitious goal of supporting a position admirable, their comments weren’t that pertinent to most of the material on the record.

The first track, “Is it Cuz of Me?” starts the album off with a glimmering wink of distinctness. The band uses a guitar pattern similar to Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” that has not been overly relied upon in the twenty-thirty years or so since Nebraska was released. This one is about confused lovers — specifically, attempts to establish who’s to blame in the relationship by asking twenty-three times, “is it cuz of me or are you just blaming me because of…insecurity, your root of misery, your wanting to be free…”

In tracks both two and three, the band uses a canned synthesizer sound that is comparable to the mystic sounds used in many Disney background songs — think, The Lion King. Track two, “The One,” is Billy Joel meets A-Ha. Both tracks focus on the same theme. Track two states, “You’re the one for me, can’t you see girl, that our love is true” — with the point being driven home by a high gain guitar toward the end of the song. Track three, “Need Back Your Love” — placed on the disc right after “Stop Pushing My Love Away” and “The One” — is, again, predictable in content, with a chorus that was born of the title: “I need your love, I need your love, I need back your love.” There must be more poetic ways to restate this sentiment — especially if you intend for it to be at the center of four or five songs on the album.

Despite all this repetition, I did like many of the harmonies used in the entire group of songs. Also, lead singer Paul Topete’s voice is very strong and consistent throughout the entire CD.

Following the romance, the album takes a more political turn at track six. Track six, “Reefer Madness” is the band’s tribute to their favorite illegal plant. The first line goes as follows: “I got a little story bout a boy named Doug, he likes to smoke a lot of reefer, he only tokes kind bud. He smokes that red bud, green bud, smokes that kind bud, that skunk bud.” It’s again, not overly creative, but seems to nail the point right on the head. The next track is a called “Stalker” in which he describes the dark mind of a would-be sexual predator. The song takes a bit of a weird twist, as it begins, lyrically, in the mind of the criminal. “I’ve got your number, dial it every night, I’m the voice that haunts your nightmares at night.” Written in the first person, this track successfully paints a daunting picture, an accomplishment all artists in the genre are compelled to, and yet rarely, do.

I think that the overall simplicity of the album is used very effectively in the song “Time,” a track that simply asks the listener to think about how quickly time passes and how we spend it. As the record moves on, it takes on a much lighter posture. There remain several more politically voiced songs, mixed in with the likes of titles such as “Best Friend” and “Break The Wayward Son.”

Pokerface can have a future. This album is recorded soundly and reflects the bands attentive position on different social issues. Although the deliver and harmony structures on this record are quite solid, a search for deeper and less generic lyrics will serve them well for the next record. It seems by the copyright dates behind the songs, that many of them were written five or more years ago. My guess is that in the five years since they were composed, the band and its writing have matured — as we all have. I know that there is a buzz on this band and my guess is that in a live format, they are more than worthy of the praise.