No Small Children – Hold Tight, I’m Flying
Frank Gutch Jr.
Posted On August 3, 2015
No doubt about it. No Small Children is one of the most powerful trios I’ve ever heard, when they want to be. Of course, I knew it. I knew it before the band was a twinkle in Bob Marlette’s eyes (which might make you think it was Marlette’s idea— it was not). I knew it when I discovered The Lisa Parade, Lisa Joy Pimentel’s post-Heidi and pre-NSC band. I knew it from the sound and the attitude and the incredible talent and, yes, the joy (a perfectly apt middle name, btw) Lisa feels about the music she creates, joy shared equally by bandmates Joanie (Pimentel— they are sisters) and Nicola B. Marlette, by the way, is fringe band member when he is needed and Lisa Joy’s husband and one hell of a session man and/or producer (Tracy Chapman, Al Stewart, Atreyu, Blackstone Cherry, Filter and a ton of others including The Lisa Parade and No Small Children, though he claims Lisa Joy was totally in charge on her No Small Children projects).
They list Marlette as the executive producer on the album (that usually means the guy who writes the checks) but his dial-twisting talents are legend and if he didn’t twist all the dials, he influenced whomever did. The sound is pure wall-of-sound at times, a tsunami at others, and when the music calls for it (such as on the smooth “I See You Crying”) is amazingly delicate.
It seems like decades have passed since I found these ladies and yet it seems like only last week. I saw them live in Portland, Oregon at a tavern called Slabtown thinking they could never pull of the sound, but they did and then some. I have watched every video I have been able to find and pop their CDs into my player with a fair consistency because their music brings me up. If I owned a label, I would sign them and if I was a venue owner, I would book them. They are the most positive band south of Contemporary Christian, probably because they are teachers— I mean, they teach kids— and you almost have to be to do the job right. Did I mention they can play?
Every release finds them progressing, the sound building, the intricacies turning into the every day. I thought they had peaked with Dear Youth, then Trophy Wife. After hearing this one, I’m not sure anymore. When they are not breaking new ground, they embellish what has come before and always in a good way. In the studio, that is. Live? What can you do with guitar (and occasionally trumpet), bass, and drums? A lot more than I thought possible until seeing them play live.
And here’s the cool thing. You don’t have to take my word for it. Hold Tight, I’m Flying was released to the public August 1st and you can listen to it for yourself (click here). Actually, you can listen to all of their music from Dear Youth on and, if you dig them enough, can even find Lisa Parade and a side project Lisa Joy and Joanie were a part of called The Tree Amigos (click here).
If you really want to know why I love these guys, it is because this is the first all-girl band (hey, that’s what we called them back in the Stone Age) which doesn’t make me think all-girl. They are a band and that’s all that matters.
The videos in this review are from earlier projects. They start filming their first for this album the last week in August.
