By: Vandal Truong
Rating: 9/11

Over a sparse single guitar chord, "Gasoline Into An open Fire" opens like many other rock ballads. But then the song swells into a brash, emotional howl filled with more guitars and throbbing drums of a growling, salty rock jam. Expect the unexpected on Working On A Novel, the debut EP from the New York based quartet known as A Stillwater Satellite.

These are not pretty boys looking for a top ten hit. The band has been playing together for over ten years and it shows through the album's dedicated, workman-like balance of bluesy, hard rock and funk. Each song has its own identity, from the do-wop breakdown of "So Sick Of Sorry" to the John Doe/X sounding "Oceans" (a number when performed live at Spike Hill in May, created a sea of bobbing heads and dancing bodies).

These innovative, dedicated musicians formed in high school through cousins Will Medica (lead vocals, guitars) and Tim Gannon (guitar, keyboard), who recruited two of their favorite musicians from previous bands, Mark Macaluso (drums) and Tim O'Flaherty (bass, woodwinds). Although they are varied in arrangement and style, their songs share a masterful interplay between acoustic and electric instruments with heartfelt lyrics, demonstrating that A Stillwater Satellite’s greatest strength is the sum of all their members.

However, it is not easy to pin down exactly what their sound is. They are a jam band (especially in concert), yet at times they sound like The Replacements and Velvet Underground. They incorporate six-strings, electrics, acoustics, a high bass, a big kick drum sound, slides, floats, even screaming voices. Their songs do not follow any convention yet they seem to stitch it all together nicely with a three-part harmony.

The band's talents shine full force in, "Making Monday Morning...Friday Afternoon," a song that details the heartbreaking journey to create something bold through art. These may be the darkest moments but if you look inside, to hear and to feel – the band reminds the listener – then you come out stronger and, almost more importantly, with a body of art created. This is exactly what Working On A Novel is, a journey that resulted in an artful blend of jazz-blues-funk-roots rock.