The next band I want to ramble like a big ol pretentious idiot about seems to kinda fly under the radar a lot of the time. I don’t know why. Maybe because they don’t tour as rabidly as some of their labelmates, maybe because their frontman is not as conventionally handsome as some of their labelmates (though I think he’s pretty sexy); either way though I feel they’re tragically underappreciated.
Though NQ Arbuckle are often accused of being country, they insist they lean more towards the rock side of the spectrum, saying they’ve gone up in front of country crowds and bombed – I don’t know why, because they sound like any band I’d hear if I stepped into an icehouse here in Texas, only loads better which is nothing but the highest compliment from me. They are made up of frontman Neville Quinlan, brothers Mark and Peter Kesper, and bassist John Dinsmore, and they make candid, high-energy, quietly romantic songs that compile little snapshots of every day life: walking home in the early hours, musing on laundry and dirty dishes that need attending to, making awkward conversation with the girl you like and tipping a few pints – oh boy, there’s a lot of pint-tipping. Enough to warrant a little nod of the head to Neville (along with Chang of Veal) in his buddy and producer Luke Doucet’s song “Brother”, on which Neville actually does vocals: “He was drunker than Arbuckle/he was higher than Chang.“
So, yeah. I don’t have an eloquent or witty way to wrap this up, so I’m just going to be frank and say that their songs always make me feel really happy, and even if you’re not into country music, they’re definitely worth taking the few minutes to check them out. You might be surprised.
Highlights:
- “I Can See the Moon“, from Last Supper in a Cheap Town : I don’t have anything to say about this. I just love it, that’s all.
- “Walls Are So Thin“, also from Last Supper in a Cheap Town : Decidedly less twangy than the rest of this album, and I will always consider the last chorus, “And the stars fall from the sky/And this broken moon has lost its shine/and the clouds all tumble like smoke/it’s wintertime and I feel cold” to be on par with Tom Waits’ “Earth Died Screaming” with respect to apocalyptic music.
- If you take a gander at Richard’s live recordings, which you can find in the link list to the right there, you can find a thirty-minute clip of a live show in Waterloo in 2006. It’s huge, but it’s worth it. They’re fantastic live and Neville Quinlan is endearing as hell.
Six Degrees/Pointless Trivia Section:
- John Dinsmore is an extremely talented musician who has played for Sarah Slean, Sarah Harmer, Danny Michel, Kathleen Edwards, Melissa McClelland, Oh Susanna, and many more, and has a spot in Luke Doucet and the White Falcon as both a bassist and a rhythm guitar player. He sings, he writes, he produces, he engineers, and, apparently, runs the Lincoln County Social Club, a recording studio in Ontario.
- Off the top of my head, Neville has guested on Luke Doucet’s songs numerous times, helped pick out the best songs to make the cut for his latest album Blood’s Too Rich, and when Luke lost his voice at the SxSW this year, Neville helped him out by singing some of the songs for him. Awww. In addition, Luke has produced all their albums so far.
- The whole of NQ Arbuckle also went out to Europe with labelmates Luke and Justin Rutledge last year in what was deemed the Six Shooter Triple Barrel Tour. Seriously, guys. What I wouldn’t give to be able to see that.
- Sarah Slean (Neville’s alleged then-girlfriend) guested on their first album, Hanging the Battle-Scarred Pinata, along with Carolyn Mark, with whom Neville did a duet called “Fireworks” on her album Just Married: An Album of Duets – which also features Ford Pier of the Rheostatics, Geoff Berner, Corb Lund and Luke Doucet.
Get the music – once again – at Six Shooter Records and Maple Music.
