Release date: March 4, 2008
Artist/Band name: The OaKs
Record label: Indie
Official Web Site: www.myspace.com/wearetheoaks
Backstory:
Started as a duo in 2005 by college friends Ryan Costello and Matthew Antolick,
with the indie release of their debut album “Our Fathers and The Things They
Left Behind,” the pair reached massive critical acclaim and was featured in the
Paste Magazine cover story “Can Rock Save the World?” The Oaks introduced their
current six-piece lineup at the 2006 Anti-Pop Music Festival before recording
“Songs for Waiting” in the living room of Costello’s Florida home.
Why you should care: Layering a multitude of instrumentation and
blending a vast array of musical genres, "Songs for Waiting"’s sonic landscapes
echo the world music styling’s of Paul Simon’s legendary “Graceland” coupled
with the simplistic beauty and delivery of the Counting Crows’ “August and Everything
After.”
Verdict: Musically, the Oaks deliver an aural texture
that few bands even manage to attempt—one that delivers equal parts cacophony
and clarity but never manages to become muddled in its management. However,
vocally the band suffers, and though Costello attempts to interject literary
subject matter into his songs (“The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”) and address
global concerns (“War Changes Everything”) the prose and the point are often
lost to the overwhelming music accompaniment.
X-Factor: In
2003 Ryan Costello moved to Afghanistan.
As the
Director of Agriculture for Global Hope Network, Costello
taught hygiene, nutrition, and
creative agriculture techniques to refuges returning after the fall of the
Taliban. A photo record of Costello’s time in the Central Afghan Mountains
is documented on his website www.ryancostello.com.
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