STEVEN BRANT AND THE PHANTOMS: Age of Regrets

Steven Brant and the Phantoms

Age of Regrets

© 2002 Steven Brant (643157115021)

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Acoustic music with electric instruments, coupling a folkie background with pop sensibilities to spawn songs about our age and our aging (and if we can't age as gracefully as we'd like, we're for-sure gonna have fun whining about it).

tracks

1 Baby Rock
2 Ellis Island
3 Holes
4 Holy Grail
5 Mild Thing
6 Here We Are
7 The Day to Day Brutality of Love
8 Broken Glass
9 Call Me Ishmael
10 The Regulator Clock
11 Ground Zero
12 Oswiecm (auschwitz)
13 Age of Regret
14 (bonus Track)

notes

Steven Brant and the Phantoms - it smells fishy.

Take that description, 'acoustic music with electric instruments.' It's self-contradictory. It's not even strictly true. Most of the instruments - piano, drums, guitar - are acoustic.

What's this 'pop folk' thing? Didn't folk-rock go out with bell-bottoms and tie-dyes? (Okay, I know those clothes are coming back, but you know what I mean.) Their folkie friends call it pop and the pop dudes complain that it's too folk.

And then there's the band, made up of people named Geist and Specter and Sceadu (pronounced 'shad-OH'). Are these guys real? For that matter, is Marion Specter even a guy? And why aren't their pictures on the albums? What are they hiding?

Finally, what about the music? Like settling into a comfortable couch only to have a spring break loose and poke you in the butt. They obviously grew up in the 60s - not the psychedelic era, more like Buffalo Springfield meets Love. But they clearly live in the aughts or 00s or whatever we call this decade. They write about grown-up things, too, from grown-up love to growing older, without whining about it all. No, I take it back, they do whine a bit about aging, but they have rollicking fun doing so. No angst, just rueful acceptance you can dance to. (Anyone remember the frug?)

Acoustic music with electric instruments. Phantoms indeed.

Something is definitely fishy here.

And catchy. And did I mention fun?

Age of Regrets is acoustic music with electric instruments: that's what happens in the Age of Regrets. (If you play it backwards, it comes out 'Regrets of Age.' Or maybe 'Paul Is Dead'; playing CDs backwards is not something to try without proper training, on a closed course, with a professional driver.)

The Age of Regrets is Shakespeare with a comb-over; with the confidence this would have given old Will, he'd surely not have poured his existential doubt into poor Hamlet.

The Age of Regrets is Lincoln smoothing away those forehead wrinkles with Botox. He was clearly worried that the world would little note nor long remember what he said at Gettysburg; with a smooth forehead, that speech would have played much, much better on TV.

Note: to check out Lincoln's wrinkles, take out a $5 bill. While you're at it, get another $5 out and send it in to get your own copy of Age of Regrets. In addition to 13 great tunes, you get cover art proving how much better Willie the Shake and Honest Abe would have looked had they not suffered from the Regrets of Age.

You've got the Regrets of Age when...
- Rockin' your baby all night long
takes on a whole new meaning;
learn to dance the Baby Rock.
- You remember the Troggs, but folks
say you're now doing the Mild Thing.
- You acknowledge how hard you have to
work at real relationships, caught up
in the Day to Day Brutality of Love.

And is there doubt that this is the Age of Regrets?
- We used to welcome folks with open
arms at Ellis Island.
- We get caught up not in living but in
searching for the Holy Grail.
- We are witness to the horrors of 9/11;
we are all at Ground Zero.

So if Regrets of Age are keeping you awake in this Age of Regrets, we have the cure. Just take two tracks each night from Steven Brant and the Phantoms and call your lover in the morning.

Age of Regrets is also great preventive medicine for those who don't yet suffer from Regrets of Age. Your mileage may vary. See dealer for VIN number. And do, please, try this at home.

reviews

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  • Cool stuff, hard to classify but fun, great songs
    author: Jan Howard

    This is a great CD. It's odd stylistically, all over the map, which bands don't seem to do anymore. It ranges from rockabilly to piano ballads to rockers to alt.country almost. I love range and surprises, so this CD really does it for me. Three things stand out -- 1) they're good at what they do, 2) they're not style-jumping, but rather the styles seem totally authentic and integral to the music, and 3) there's a continuity that pulls it all together, some combination of the singer's odd but involving voice, the rollicking piano, and lyrics that dig deep into issues without ever feeling like (bad) poetry. There's an authentic voice here that shines through the DIY-but-professional production, or maybe that DIY attitude is part of what makes it all authentic. Cool album.

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