The first time you hear Deer Meet’s Turn to Clear Vision, you may get visions of booted feet kicking amplifiers over. Those belong to Jimmy Angelina. Deer Meet is definitely Angelina’s project. As the title suggests, the production is clean, sparse and dominated by Angelina’s guitar work. The tunes are tight, focused affairs, reminiscent of Jason Loewenstein’s post-Sebadoh album At Sixes and Sevens. Instruments come in and hit their mark in Deer Meet’s sound, accenting and highlighting the melody rather than making the songs evolve. It’s all well and good, but too often this album errs on the side of sounding thin. You can hardly say that it’s layered sound, mostly front-loaded guitar without the back end to hold it up. That said, there’re some nice pieces, particularly “Extra Special” and “Wake Me Up.” Angelina is an obviously skilled and well-studied songwriter, but despite that, Deer Meet leaves us wanting a bit of a stronger, distinctive sound amid the taught rock. Deer Meet plays Wednesday, Dec. 10, at Derby City Espresso (331 E. Market St.) with Lincoln & Lost Prayers. Cover is $5. Showtime is 9 p.m.
This article appears in December 10, 2008.