Those familiar with singer-songwriter Tony Ferraro will remember his work from the band Eaton Lake Tonics. The group was a staple in the Fort Worth scene, with a reputation for being a sturdy rock band with live chops. It has been a couple years since ELT called it quits, and Ferraro has since relocated to Denton. There he met up with some familiar local musicians to form Satans of Soft Rock, a band which seems better suited to Ferraro’s impish humor. The members of the new lineup, including the ubiquitous Ryan Thomas Becker and drummer Justin Collins, are part of an overlapping Denton cabal that has given us Hares on the Mountain, Danny Rush and the DDs and Last Joke Band. All of these musicians are notorious for their talent, creativity, artistry, performances, work ethic, and pretty much everything except making a big splash in the shallow pool of DFW music. This week the band releases their debut album, Friend of Man and Beast Alike, and it is a ten-song study in catchy song-smithing.
Friend of Man and Beast Alike is another exhibit in their collective case as DFW’s best songwriters. For certain musicians, the pop song is a religion. Its adherents try to swing for the upper deck with every tune they craft. They are not interested in the avant garde, gimmicky theatrics or even, on an essential level, accumulating fans. They are puritans of melody, striving only to do right by some elusive ideal they call music and write a hit every time. Ferraro is certainly one of these kinds of writers. His compositions have always been impressive. They have settings, intrigue, depth and characters, some of the sympathetic kind and some of the outright bastard kind. With Satans of Soft Rock, he continues this practice of penning three-dimensional tunes that riff and flow with simple and beguiling melodies. They are stark and pliable narratives sung in Ferraro’s sneering, sandpaper voice over a lo-fi background of naked rock.
It is difficult to nail down the tone of Satans of Soft Rock. The themes are far from cheery, but neither do they wallow in sad-sack murk. Rather, they tend toward the playfully cynical. Lines like “friends like you are why we give up on friends” and “if I counted every ten of your promises, I could be certain of half of the rewrites” tease with sarcastic distrust. With Satans, Ferraro flexes every ounce of his acute wit, padding each blow with heaps of good humor.
But the album is not all cheek. Friend of Man and Beast Alike takes a few grave turns, such as when the author of a thank you note is advised to “put down the pen and finish dying.” The most poignant moment arrives at the heart-bending “Zilda Bootneck,” a first-person tale of an emotionally calloused woman just trying to get lucky. To the man she solicits in the bar, she says, “I made plans to be forgotten long before I came.”
All ten tracks of Friend of Man and Beast Alike are worthwhile, but standouts include the aforementioned “Zilda Bootneck” along with “I am the Engine” and “Children in Fur Coats.” Still, these rank a distant second to side-one, track-one “Satanic Verses.” This is the one where Ferraro swings and connects. It is a pop song built for durability, and if “Satanic Verses” can find its way through the fickle and tortuous routes of social media, it might get consideration as one of DFW’s best songs this year. In fact, even in its internet demo infancy, Central Track ranked the song among the top 50 of 2012.
Satans of Soft Rock will celebrate the release of their debut with a headlining gig during Free Week ($5 for minors) at Rubber Gloves on Wednesday, September 4. Limited edition and regular CDs will be available at the show. The album may also be purchased at tonyferraro.bandcamp.com for, what else, $6.66.
