Future of Forestry: Twilight

Sitting in my dad's "home" office. Exactly how you would picture it. Corner configured, tri-tiered, plywood executive desk. Complete with cantilevered roll out keyboard platform. Trash-picked office chair, believe it or not, that is still in almost flawless condition. When I grabbed it from the trash the bolts on the chair had snapped. I just removed the old bolts and installed new ones. Bam. Gently used leather office chair. I think I cleaned it with leather cleaner to bring out that near mirror shine in the leather. It's cheap leather. But it's leather. His office is an odd wonderland of old bookcases, a rollout folder cabinet, and stacked boxes. I feel oddly comforted here. Almost like this is a small part of the earth that my dad can have complete control over. Sometimes I think he feels like the earth is closing in on him and can't control anything. But an engineer is born an engineer. He's like a character from the old t.v. series Star Trek called Mr. Spock. His brain is completely logical. Extremely analytical even when he jokes. That's why most don't get his dry, dry sense of humor. This place I sit reminds me of simpler times. It reminds me of why my parents moved to Ohio. They had seen an utterly liberal society and wanted to raise their children in a conservative one. I'm not sure why the decision was made to move to a place in between the rust and the bible belt. I like to call it the 'rusty-bible'. Where people don't change their opinions unless they're forced too. We learned how to be good baptists. We went to church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night. Sometimes my parents held bible study every morning. Expecting their children to absorb such ubiquitous amounts of philosophical material at a young age. Of course during this time my parents called on abolition of misbehavior, poor etiquette, alcohol or addicting substances whatsoever. It wasn't a complete prison. We were allowed at the time to listen to any christian rock music we desired. Terribly exciting stuff. But through that I fell in love with music. I wanted to get my hands on it as much as possible. And it wasn't until I hit puberty that I decided to listen to musicians that weren't christian. I remember the first album I bought with my own money was 'nevermind' by 'nirvana'. The album cover of a naked baby swimming after a dollar bill on a string. It wasn't exactly what fit into my parents ideal of what an evangelical child should do. But I listened anyways. I listened to whatever I could get my hands on. But the bands of my post-pubesant days were not as endearing as the bands that I listened to when I was 13. Future of Forestry reminds me of when I was 13 years old. The smooth melodies and solid bass grooves reek of classic rock. Throw in a bit of atmosphere and space and you've built a band like Future of Forestry. Thick and spacey vocals soaked in reverb. The vocals match the guitar riffs rolling over each other. The riffs are eighth notes while the vocals are fourth notes. The production of this album is focused on the riding bass and the in-tune vocals. Forestry wants 360 degrees of sound so when the main bass line returns you get gently pulled back to why you like their songs in the first place. Catchy tunes that would be great on a road trip or in a place where you want to relax your mind. Endearing to say the least. On my third spin I knew I would be listening to this band again. In spite of the fact it reminds me of a childhood without a sense indulgence. Check 'em out. John Daniels seems to like them.

JG