'Always Open' puts Picnic on the brink of a breakthrough
'Always Open' puts Picnic on the brink of a breakthrough
By Candace Murphy, Popular Music Writer
THERE is a point in time when you a know a pot of water is about to boil. The little molecules of air have gathered on the bottom of the pot. A few have straggled to freedom. The Revere Ware has begun to emit a tinny roar. Soon, giant bubbles, like the ones you used to blow as a kid with those little dual-ended plastic thingies dunked in giant vats of shampoo goo, will surface. But not just yet.
And that's where Picnic is. Picnic, the Bay Area band, is one of those giant bubbles about to burst. Picnic hasn't yet gathered the steam, the air, the whatever scientific process you ignored in 10th grade, but it almost has. And it could be big.
"I firmly believe that if this thing got some national distribution that we'd have some Top 20 tunes in there," says Picnic drummer Tim van den Berg, who lives in Los Gatos. "We're bubbling below the surface. We haven't been exposed enough."
Sure. The drummer's going to say that. Heck, Sally Hebble, the band's songwriter and vocalist, who fronts the band, is going to say that. She does say that. But after listening to Picnic's latest CD, "Always Open," I'm saying that too. "Always Open" is an inspiration not just to struggling bands that hope one day they, too, can put together 11 pretty solid songs on a single record.
And it's an inspiration to music critics who get deluged day after day by less than average talent and then must listen to less than average product. The lesson I learned is this: Give it a listen. You never know what you'll find.
On "Always Open," I'll tell you what you'll find. You'll find the opening track, "Infinity Man," a power pop tune that rocks. You'll find "Come & Go," a ballad with both rock and country influences. You'll find "One Live Love," the best grooved-out modern gospel tune I've heard since Madonna's "Like a Prayer."
Yes. I'll repeat that. The BEST grooved-out modern gospel tune I've heard since Madonna's "Like a Prayer."
Sure, you won't be dazzled by it all. There are some chore-like lyrics, the type found in a Jewel tune ("I grab my eggs and my pancakes too/ grab the maple syrup everything but you"). Those uncommonly low moments are in a song like "Fine in My Mind," when Hebble sings "I should sweep the floor and clean/the toilet; but I just don't care/ When you're not there it's hard to/care if I should brush my hair." But the song is still good. And so is the rest of the album.
Don't be surprised if you haven't heard of Picnic. For one thing, the band hasn't been around all that long. This month the foursome -- Hebble, van den Berg, guitarist Chad Culp and bass player Dave Brown -- will celebrate their second anniversary. And for another, the band tends to gig in the San Francisco area. Picnic's only regular South Bay venue is Britannia Arms (1087 De Anza Blvd.) in Cupertino. The band will play there next on May 20 at 9:30 p.m.
One of the reasons Picnic plays select clubs is the style of its music. Like offerings at a picnic, the band dabbles in several styles.
"You think of a picnic and you bring a basket and there's a little something for everybody," says van den Berg. "Some of our music is almost pop rock and I don't think there are a lot of bands like that. Especially up in the city. Everybody's got to be so different. So angry or brooding or dark. We sing 'One Live Love' and people are going, 'Man, that's just a great song.' "
Originally called Bumped By Bono, after the band lost a recording studio date because U2's front man Bono came to town and upstaged the quartet, the band soon settled on the name Picnic and quickly put out a four-song demo. Released in mid-1998, the demo garnered good reviews in independent publications and weeklies. All four of those songs are on "Always Open" ("One Live Love," "Chalkboard," "Fine in My Mind," and "Come & Go") as well.
The difference though, aside from the seven extra tunes, is the quality of "Always Open." Mixed and mastered by van den Berg -- who works at Digi Design, a company that makes high end digital audio recording tools for computers -- the album is of professional quality.
"I get to test products that are in development, so I pretty much have a digital recording studio as my office," says van den Berg, who spent a lot of nights at work finishing the album. "On one hand, the goal was to produce a CD that was as close to market-ready as possible for the interest of an indie label that would start to distribute what we've already done. On the other hand, it's just a hell of a demo." Hear. Hear.