Dots to Connect: The Music Of The Prids

By Jemiah Jefferson

Tribute albums can be a tricky thing. Gathering the right combination of bands and artists to do the best work in performing new versions of well-known songs has got to be difficult. This is one of the facts that makes this compilation’s success as remarkable as it is. Not every track is a keeper, but the ones that are stand on their own as showcases for the bands performing them as well as the exceptional songwriting that has become one of the Prids’ trademarks.

The Prids themselves, a Portland foursome who just happen to love a lot of the same music as I do, have made a name for themselves for their extensive touring and their energetic, musically gorgeous live shows which bring their excellent songs to full life. While their studio albums display a kind of sexually intense austerity, it’s the live performance that lets these musicians take flight. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so tragic that in the summer of 2008, the members of the band were victims of a horrific car accident as they set out on a highly-anticipated west coast tour. In the resulting smash-up, vehicles were totaled, equipment was destroyed, and worst of all, the band members were badly injured, hundreds of miles away from home. The proceeds from the sale of this album will go toward covering their still-gigantic bills as the band attempts to put their lives back together (and, I hope, write some amazing songs in the future).

Still, even without this brutal story to sweeten the medicine, this is a damn good record. All of the cover bands on this compilation succeed in capturing the essence of the haunting, addictive, engaging melodies present in the Prids originals, but only some of them take a different tonal approach, and of those who have a relatively similar sound, only some of the tracks match the vitality of their originals.

Green Circles’ vicious take on “Lienzencages” has a howling, propulsive beauty built from slashing guitars, determined drums, and vocalist Kell Dockham’s favorite prop, the megaphone. “Shadow and Shadow,” covered by Athens, GA’s Entertainme.nt, demands aggressive dancing and won’t take no for an answer. Still, “The Glow” and “All That You Want,” by Hearts Fail and the Charmparticles respectively, suffer by their proximity to such post-punk dance monsters, and no real sense of continuity between them.

Labelmates Bell Hollow’s approach to “Contact” wears a glossy sheen that is strikingly commercial, and yet does little to interpret the accomplished Prids original. Still, I’d love to hear more of their stuff, thus fulfilling the other sampler-like purpose of compilation albums. The same is true for Me You Us Them, who run “Back it Up Slow” through a shredder of woozy distortion and mean-spirited guitar (I mean that as an extremely high compliment), nearly making me forget the softer edges of the original track. It is that level of reinterpretation that I especially want from a cover.

Other notable moments are the Upsidedown’s take on “Glide, Screamer,” a multifaceted combination of shoegaze guitars, Devo keyboards, and blended male-female vocals that absolutely sparkles; “Something Difficult” done as electric folk by Helvetia, which comes out sounding like early ’70s Pink Floyd smoking bowls with Dinosaur Jr.; and the frankly idiosyncratic “Artificial Heart Designer,” done by Swann Danger as a twangy back-country lament—when they usually sound like angular, dangerous downtown art-punks with giant chips on their shoulders.

This compilation has a lot more songs that are keepers than most others I’ve encountered. This is a must-have for Prids fans, if only to make them just want to listen to the Prids some more, and a rewarding grab bag of mostly dark and pointed sounds with several pleasant surprises included.

To order this album, visit The Prids’ website or check on iTunes. The Prids will be playing in Portland OR and Seattle WA throughout June and July; visit the band’s MySpace page for tour dates.