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Aaron Lee Tasjan (from the album Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! available on New West Records) (by Joe Burcaw)
What 34-year-old musician gets to brag about being a member of The New York Dolls, and having the great Tony Visconti and Jack White as your record producers? The answer is Aaron Lee Tasjan, that’s who. These are just a few accomplishments this buckeye boy from New Albany, Ohio can add to his ever-extending CV. Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!” is his latest release from New West records, and his fourth solo album in just four years. This chap is quite the prolific songwriter, creating a helluva lot of output in a short span of time. Aaron Lee Tasjan has been quoted saying ‘this is not anxious music for anxious times but rather music as an antidote for anxious times. It is the sound of the future arriving’. The single “Computer of Love” (from a visual standpoint) summarizes that quote perfectly integrating humanistic interaction and dialogue with technology, think Michael Knight’s relationship with his computer Kit from the 80’s hit show “Knight Rider”. I was really drawn to the lyrical wit that went into crafting the words, ‘hey ladies from the late 80’s staring back at me, such beauties on my screen’. To some this may be a bland statement gaining no reactive response. For someone such as myself, it automatically put me back to my childhood days trying to figure out whether or not I should play Donkey Kong Jr. or Ms. Pac-Man on my Atari 2600 gaming console, way before GTA and Mindcraft dominated the market. I digress, this tune had a very uplifting ‘look up to the stars’ feel to it, allowing the listener to float away in interstellar ecstasy. This could have been a leftover track from The Traveling Wilbury’s debut record, super hooky and a fun interdimensional experience overall! Switching gears completely, we examine the super spacey acoustic driven “Another Lonely Day”. I loved the atmospheric guitars and Beatles-influenced backing vocals, they added so much depth and richness to the song’s layering. I wonder if either Robert Fripp or Josh Klinghoffer were secretly hired to play the eight-bar pitched whammy pedal solo? Very tasty and subtle with effective use of space between the bars, a knock-out performance in my honest opinion. The opening track, “Sunday Women”, starts off with the chorus as opposed to the traditional verse then chorus, a clever intro that just proves how a solid chorus needs to be repeated and dropped in multiple times to get the point across. The bouncing bass line counters the vocal melody beautifully without ever interfering with each other. Kudos to Tasjan’s bassist, he or she provided a foundation that moves the song along fluidly within its late 1960’s Mod vibe. The treated snare drum was a nice affect that could have fit into Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I, for some reason, kept thinking of Matthew Sweet for the treated guitar solo, it grabs you and won’t let go until the last bar, awesome use of textures indeed! Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! is a hit with us and we hope to hear more live performances from Mr. Aaron Lee Tasjan in 2021, a mighty fine job mate! (by Joe Burcaw) Listen and buy the music of Aaron Lee Tasjan from AMAZON For more info, check out the Aaron Lee Tasjan website
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