Review Magazine

NEW MUSIC:

The Lemon Test...

Young, Unorthodox, Inventive, and Brilliant

By Beverly Pickering

When one thinks of creative & artistic genius one probably doesn't automatically think 'Cass City'. Granted, just a few miles east of that sweet little Tuscola County town are the famous Petroglyphs; a set of beautiful and mysterious 'cave paintings' attributed to a native culture that populated the area many hundreds of years ago. It certainly could be argued that it is well past time for a new set of local artists to leave their mark, and the brilliant new Cass City-based band Lemon Test is positioned to do exactly that.
 

Formed in 2004, Lemon Test is comprised of an eclectic but like-minded group of five Cass City High School friends whose collectively intelligent, introspective outlook, breathtaking musicianship, and intensely innovative songwriting is causing some major players in the world of music to sit up and cock a highly intrigued ear in the direction of Michigan's thumb.
 

Lemon Test is this generations' evidence that there are, blessedly, new musical horizons yet to be explored; despite what our jaded musical minds might thing, we have most certainly not Heard It All Before. In taking an organic and somewhat unorthodox approach to the task of songwriting, Lemon Test has managed to create songs that are enchanting, inventive, and truly fresh in sound & style.
 

While I always cringe at the notion of comparing new bands to old, fearing to mislead the reader (i.e. the sound of the new band in question, one can't help but throw around names like Radiohead, Jane's Addiction, Steely Dan, and Pink Floyd) when talking about Lemon Test. Not that their songs mimic in any way the songs of those ground-breaking groups; it is rather in the very sincere and personal dedication to musical purity, honesty, innovation, and the highest levels of musicianship that Lemon Test and those legendary bands share a bloodline.
 

In a recent conversation, the members of Lemon Test gave me an idea of just how their somewhat unorthodox songwriting takes place. The band gathers together and one of the members presents a single creative trigger, either lyrical or musical; maybe an odd take on human experience phrased in an arresting way; or perhaps a few notes of a captivating musical line, or maybe an unconventional percussive beat. Other band members start to experiment & explore, adding a complimentary musical phrase here, or structuring an unconventional chord pattern there; fleshing it out and enriching the song until there is a definite form, which is then worked & reworked to perfection.
 

Despite the looseness & openness of the initial writing process, it is that hard work and rework that results in music that is far from rambling or sketchy. On the contrary, songs like Hong Kong and Train have a sturdy, recognizable structure. Yet at the same time, the overall feel of a Lemon Test song, its hallmark, is a certain mystic quality; the songs are airy, maybe even a touch psychedelic. There are elements of many different styles here; whiffs of 311/Sublime tinged reggae; some funky flavor finds its way into the mix; there is straight-ahead, no-nonsense rock and there is even some sweet, pretty pop. But for all that, Lemon Test remains gloriously impossible to categorize, a true indication that we are indeed listening to something genuinely unprecedented.
 

These songs transport you, but the place to which they take you is a place you're quite sure you've never been; at least not in your conscious state. The lyrics are amorphous, more mood-setting than story telling. You get a delicate sense of a time, or a place, or a state of mind; of a worry, a hope, or a longing; but the ultimate meaning of these beautiful songs is the listeners' to determine. All of this may sound annoyingly lofty, but it would be a mistake to assume Lemon Test to be arty fops with too-complex and deliberately evasive songs. On the contrary, despite its intelligence and artfulness, there is to this enchanted music a fresh, aching connectedness that envelopes, includes & relates, with much love and great human empathy.

All of this stellar and innovative songwriting would certainly be less well served were the creators & performers of it not musicians of the highest caliber. Each and every member is at once an incredibly young and yet supremely talented musician, the kind of talent that makes older musicians grind their teeth and mutter into their scotch about the unfairness of it all.
 

Though lead vocalist and keyboard whiz Sam Howard is only 18-years old, his strong, smooth voice conveys a gentle world-weariness that is profoundly moving, and his playing brings to mind the sophisticated, slightly oddball style of early Steely Dan - think the opening piano lines of 'My Old School' to get a feel for what I mean. 20-year old drummer Erik Helwig is a disarmingly hip beat keeper; looking for all the world like he just won the school class championship (which he probably did) he surprises the hell out of you by playing drums with this phat funky feel, incorporating an old school vibe into the new and quirky rhythms that are a Lemon Test signature.

Erik's brother, Trey Helwig, the baby of the bunch at sixteen, is a talented multi-instrumentalist who plays the role of musical floater, moving smoothly from percussion to keyboard to vocals to whatever is needed, providing complexity and depth to both the live & recorded sound of Lemon Test. Bassist Steve McIntosh, at 24 the old man of the group, is one of those long-lost bassists who truly get that melody is part of the bass picture. The glorification of the thunka-thumpa bass in current music has relegated bassists to the role of being standing drummers who just happen to be holding a stringed instrument. McIntosh's incredibly full & fluid sound incorporates chord, melody and actual TONE and NOTE into his bass work, which entwines beautifully with Erik's drum sound to create a wonderfully solid & soulfully satisfying bottom end.
 

But it is in the work of 18-year old guitarist Corey Johnson that words like 'genius' and 'prodigy' start getting thrown around, and with extremely good reason. I frankly cannot recall in all my years of musical observation ever being so utterly hypnotized by a guitar layer. Passion, innovation, power, imagination, total submersion into the song & the moment - it's all there, and it's beautiful, and it's all Corey Johnson.
 

Read the words '18-year old guitarist' and chances are the first thing to come to mind is the picture of a gawky kid hanging out a well-meaning but irritatingly harsh, error-ridden sound, with lots of missed notes, lousy with bravado and good intentions, but terribly executed. But when the 18-year old guitarist in question is Corey Johnson, the guitar becomes a wand, a scepter, a sword - hell, it's a light saber. He just doesn't lay guitar, he wields guitar. He weeps and wails and oozes guitar. Never have I seen instrument & instrumentalist become so completely one and together play with such heart, finesse, and desperate beauty.
 

The time has come in my little rave to talk about Lemon Test live, but it is here that words most fully fail to illustrate. In fact, I'm tempted to just stop here and say, 'Dear reader, go see them yourselves and then you'll get it', but I feel compelled to at least attempt to convey what it means to see these young men take a stage - take a stage, indeed. The first time I went to watch the band, I observed them as they set up, and I couldn't help but assume from their tidy, somber, bespectacled (three of the five members wear glasses) appearance that the best I could hope for from this slightly geeky looking group of young performers would be a slightly geeky if competent set of emo, best suited to young librarians and engineers-to-be.
 

The fact is I had my socks rocked off.
 

There are those of you out there old enough to remember when we went to things called 'rock shows' instead of 'rock concerts'. A 'concert' implies the audience will simply sit and listen as music is played; a rock show means there is something to be seen as well as heard. Friends, Lemon Test puts on a rock show. Movement, energy, auxiliary musicians (the mysterious JT and the incredibly, nimble, disarmingly quirky Alex Hiatt), high-school band bass drums, phantom guitar players, members disappearing and reappearing and yet never missing a single beat, note, element, or step. That there was so much intense (on and off) stage activity and that the music not only didn't suffer, but also was amazingly enriched by it all is a testament to the power of Lemon Test live. The songs live are much more 'rock' songs than they are in their recorded form; Lemon Test would be wise to think about recording their first full length CD as a live album. Unorthodox? Certainly. But there is an energy and a gorgeous rage in this music played live that would be difficult, even in the best of recording circumstances, to truly capture.

So, is the world ready for the Next Big Thing, musically, especially if it comes from Cass City? The fact that renowned producer/session man Tim Lauer (Faith Hill, Megadeth, etc) has hurried Lemon Test into a Nashville studio for demos would indicate that it very well might be. But the sad fact that the majority of the band and their primary following are not old enough to drink presents an enormous challenge. Where are they to find anywhere to play locally?
 

I can't help but feel that Lemon Test will find their fame without the support of the very lace they hail from, due to the fact that the place they hail from tends to largely support only familiar sounding sounds and only goes to see bands if they are performing in a place where they can drink along with the music. There are piteously few venues here, or anywhere for that matter, in which a young band can showcase its work.
 

And that is a sad travesty for Lemon Test and for all the earnest young musicians out there who dream dreams but have no place in which they can watch them come true. I can only hope that the incredible songwriting, musicianship, professionalism, and integrity of Lemon Test will serve to launch them from small town obscurity to the lofty levels they deserve to reach. After all, isn't it about time we were known for something a little fresher, artistically, then those damn old petroglyphs?