The Seattle Kentucky Sound

Rise and Fall (Infi)

Rise and Fall

By David Lilly

Do you smell that smell, Eddie? I wonder if Kurt would. My olfactory senses and eardrums detect something akin to a crash in the South and a resurrection of sorts in the Northwest. While the Lexington-borne rock of Rise and Fall certainly isn't limited to this sound, one or two songs they play contain a mixture of southern rock (more on that later) and grunge/alternative, or whatever that hard-edged sound is being called this month (sorry if my age is showing).

With Steve Null plucking bass, Kris Kirkpatric banging the skins & cymbals, Ed Harris-look-alike Josh Dillaha on tonsils and guitar, and young-Eric Burdon look-alike Frank Ikerd picking and strumming, they're pretty good at it, too. To be fair, sometimes they also sound a bit like Metallica. Stick around and let me show you around this eponymous disc a little bit.

OK, about the south and northwest thing: "My Little Woman" is the first song and its melody bears a resemblance to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Needle and the Spoon," except that Dillaha definitely doesn't sing with a southern accent, and it has what has often been referred to as "the Seattle sound." It's an interesting combination, really. On the heels of that comes the solid crunching of "Buster" and then a radio-friendly, electronic bubble maker called "Busted Groove" that will fill a dance floor. Then the band allows the listener to chill for a few minutes with the ballad, "7 Days."

Nothing on this disc really comes out of left field, but another strong contender for radio is "New Rise." That covers the first half of the CD, and so it goes, er, rocks and crunches. Does Rise and Fall play mostly "hard rock" or "metal?" Have a listen and you decide. Whatever you want to call it, they're good at it.