Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Eric Hofbauer: Eric Hofbauer: American Fear!

389

Eric Hofbauer: Eric Hofbauer: American Fear!

By

View read count
Eric Hofbauer: Eric Hofbauer: American Fear!
With American Fear!, creative guitarist Eric Hofbauer once again exposes his funny bone, effectively demonstrating that jazz and humor are not mutually exclusive. Like American Vanity (Creative Nation, 2002), this is a solo guitar effort mixing unusual covers with quirky originals, all delivered with the Boston-based artist's extroverted minimalism.

There are no disposable notes in this suite of vignettes, each track a meditation on the various ramifications of fear, whether from childhood ("Monsters Under the Bed"), adolescent angst (Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"), recession-era depression ("Bailout Blues") or general ennui ("Broke Down...Breakdown," the only overdubbed track). Although "Moose the Mooch-Cash Style" features prepared guitar, with paper-threaded strings that sound like a marimba made with PVC pipes, the rest of the tracks are recorded with an unadorned electric-acoustic sound, remarkable for their panchromatic palette of tones and textures: Hofbauer uses damped harmonics, slides, whammied chords, radical dynamic contrasts and register leaps, tickle-scratches and two-handed tapping to color and shade his musical images.

Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" is shred-full bebop-a-boogie; "The Jump Jump" keeps about four balls in the air at once, like Joe Pass in overdrive; "Her Hiding Place" and "American Wonder" are short, poetic pieces with lush open chords and expressive glissandos; "Black and Lost Blue Highway," an uncanny amalgam of Hank Williams and Fats Waller, features chunky bass licks and gutbucket growls. For all its variety, drawing on recognizable elements of jazz and other musical traditions, Hofbauer's voice emerges here unique and distinct, blending the comedic with the tragic—and having some serious fun.

Track Listing

Everybody Wants to Rule the World; Twenty Questions; Her Hiding Place; Hot for Teacher; Bailout Blues; Monsters in the Closet; Monsters Under the Bed; Moose the Mooch--Cash Style; Black and Lost Blue Highway; The Jump Jump; La Ligne de Chance; Smells Like Teen Spirit; Black Fire; Broke Down...Breakdown; American Wonder.

Personnel

Eric Hofbauer: guitar.

Album information

Title: Eric Hofbauer: American Fear! | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Creative Nation Music

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT



Eric Hofbauer Concerts


Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.