Columbia's Fumes furthers smoldering indie-rock sound with pair of EPs
Every Fumes song feels like a short story.
The longtime project of Columbia songwriter Lou Nevins, the band packs emotional range, rich characterization and quotable lines of dialogue into every three- or four-minute swath of music.
This spring, Fumes delivered a terrific pair of EPs that furthers the band's smoldering vibe through original songs and an impressive bit of indie-rock interpretation. April's "Dear Margaret" covers four cuts by superlative singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy; while "Too Many Ghosts," out last month, adds six new Nevins compositions to the Fumes canon.
Per Nevins' aesthetic, these recordings shape a buoyant, almost classicist sense of pop songcraft with serrated edges and shadowy lyrics. Think Lambchop, a Midwest version of Belle and Sebastian, or Tom Waits minus the gravel.
"Dear Margaret" relies heavily on Stella Peters' sublime vocals; her voice possesses a sort of weary romanticism that hearkens back to the best nightclub singers while fitting the rock 'n' roll bill.
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Opener "Anthony" sets Peters' vocals to a fitting, smoky bar band feel, accented by Travis McFarlane' dazzling piano runs. Regret, desire and Nevins' bass-led grooves propel these songs toward closing highlight "You and I," a duet between him and Peters.
His sandpaper-worn baritone and her expressive voice sideswipe like bumper cars, matching each other note-for-note over an uptempo blues-rock feel built from bent and accented tones.
Between those bookends, the sharpest moments on "Dear Margaret" come along "Memory Street"; first, Peters bravely delivers Glaspy's verse "The record skips but I let it play / But I hear your voice scream my name / And I tell you to go back / To wherever the f--k you came" before Nevins answers immediately with a guitar howl.
Then, at song's end, she hits the phrase "times I" no less than nine times as part of the line "I try to remember all the times I / took forever to forget." Such repetition not only underlines the record-skip motif; it lends new meaning to each invocation and builds a sort of collective gravity.
"Too Many Ghosts" is somehow both more ambitious and tightly coiled. "Harry, You're Lovely" starts the set in fine fashion; a rich horn section stocked by local players adds punctuation and color to the forward-moving piece of folk-rock.
One of the highlights here, "Beautiful Dreamer" lives on the smarter and more spry side of the '90s rock dial, with Nevins holding court and unspooling romantic intentions over nimble guitars.
McFarlane's playing molds closing couplet "On Your Birthday" and "Place in My Heart." On the former, he lays enveloping organ passages over Hooten Hallers drummer Andy Rehm's rocksteady playing; on the latter, his barroom piano and overcast organ helps Fumes swing 3 1/2 minutes of dance music for a pair of down-and-out lovers who find their way up together.
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Nevins and Peters trade and twine terrific lines — his "You're just too big for this midsize town" might be the best on both EPs — on their way through a rich yet resigned love affair.
"Too Many Ghosts" feels like a who-who of mid-Missouri rock with McFarlane, Rehm, guitarist John Galbraith, string player Molly Healey, bassist Brock Johnson and others joining that deep bench of horn players to help fulfill Nevins' musical visions.
Though short in duration, these two offerings come with a long reach; Nevins and Co. deliver musical satisfaction while stoking an even greater curiosity with their poetry.
Find more of the band's work at https://thefumes.bandcamp.com/.
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. Find him on Twitter @aarikdanielsen.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia's Fumes furthers smoldering indie-rock sound with two EPs
