As easy as it would be to lump 764-HERO in with bands like Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, they are actually taking the idiosyncratic "emo" sounds of the Pacific Northwest in a striking direction. Emo veteran John Atkins overturns this new genre's loud-soft schema and weaves a subtler cloth of glittering guitars, wending vocals, and psychedelic interludes. The ballad "Calendar Pages" creates shivering, anesthetic spaces where the silence is as present as the hollow cymbal rolls and dead-of-winter guitars. "Watch the Silverware" is raring to rock the radio with a brilliant off-center guitar riff that encodes the gushing melody directly onto the brain. Get Here and Stay is a quiet surprise--like finding a dollar on the sidewalk. --Lois Maffeo
64-HERO
Get Here And Stay
[Up]
Rating: 7.8
"Hello?"
"Hello, is John Atkins there?"
"I'm sorry, you must have the wrong..."
"How about Polly Johnson? Is she there?"
"What number are you trying to reach?"
"764-4376."
"Well, this is that number, but there's no one by that... oh wait. You wouldn't happen to be a music critic, would you?"
"Uh... yeah. How'd you guess?"
"And you're reviewing Get Here And Stay, right? You've been having trouble writing the review, so you resorted to the cheap gimmick of actually dialing 764-HERO to see who you'd get?"
"Er..."
"Geez, you music critics are an unoriginal bunch. I've gotten twenty calls just this week from you guys, expecting me to write your reviews for you. And I'm not even the real 764-HERO; if you'd done your homework properly, you'd know that 764-HERO got their name from the hotline to report carpool lane violators in Washington state."
"[sigh] All right, all right, I'm sorry about bothering you. I guess I'll just..."
"Oh, no need to apologize, I'm used to it by now. I've even got this whole spiel about Get Here And Stay prepared, if you'd care to hear it."
"Well, I'd appreciate it greatly if you could..."
"Yeah, no problem. Here goes: So Get Here And Stay boasts a much different sound from 764-HERO's previous stuff, if you hadn't noticed. Before, they were a guitar- and- drums duo with this really raw, jagged sound; on Get Here And Stay they've become a trio with the addition of James Bertram, who used to play bass in Lync and Red Stars Theory. As a result, their sound is a lot lusher and more full-- somewhere between Lync's ramshackle indie rock and Built To Spill's glimmering psychedelic pop."
"Whoa, slow down a sec, I need to write all this down... okay, keep going."
"764-HERO has also mellowed out a lot more emotionally. Before they were doing the old bipolar balancing act between blistery anger and unfathomable despair; now, they sound a lot more weary. You can hear it in John Atkins' voice; he sings like he's been hurting all his life, and now he's just sick and tired of being so sick and tired all the time. Most of the songs on Get Here And Stay are at once dreamy and propulsive, great driving music if you think Modest Mouse is a bit too heavy. But the best tracks are the quieter moments, like 'Calendar Pages' and 'Coastline,' because they've got the achy ballad thing down pat."
"So... do you like it, then?"
"Yeah, it's pretty good. I'd recommend it to people who dig any of the other bummed- out music coming out of the post- grunge Northwest, like Elliott Smith or Silkworm. Granted, 764-HERO isn't all that distinctive compared to those guys, but they're decent."
"Okay, thanks a lot. This is some great stuff!"
"You're welcome, but could you do me a favor? Don't, like, quote me verbatim. Change a few things around and add some of your own stuff, because frankly, every other music critic in the state has heard the same thing from me. And nothing sucks more than a bunch of different reviews of an album that all say the same thing."
"No problem."
-Nick Mirov
Review by Jason Kaufman
764-Hero may not admit it, but all the rainy days in their hometown of Seattle have obviously gotten to them. As confident a breakup album as you'll hear, Get Here and Stay plays out like a sopping wet Sunday afternoon made for laying low. Lead man John Atkins isn't afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve, and his emotional tales of wounded love play out with added poignancy due to this openness, especially on the desolate and graceful "Calendar Pages." It doesn't hurt that his tight guitar rhythms, paired off with Polly Johnson's whispering drum beats, offer up lovely melodies and even a bit of melancholia all too rare in most indie love letters. Even when Atkins tries to let the sun shine through the melodies, as on the low-fi stomper "History Lessons," the distraught romantic in him turns the new wave organs underneath the surface into cries of heartbreak.
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