Panic At The Disco Vet Side Project Ends Up Black and Bruised

Black Gold’s myspace page has this to say about their latest Picture Show EP, “an addictive collection of songs evoking T-Rex, Satie, Chic, Quincy Jones-era Michael Jackson, Bowie, The Brothers Gibb, and the Band.” That is a bold list to live up to. In fact, I think it’s pretty much impossible. Lets start from the beginning and work our way down, shall we?

T-Rex. Ok, I honestly don’t see where Black Gold’s Eric Ronick (of Panic at the D!sco) and Than Luu (Rachel Yamagata) get this notion from. There’s no stripped down guitar or honeyed multi-tracked vocals here. Black Gold’s slick nocturnal presence is not nearly as straightforward as T-Rex’s sunny day, muscle car cruise.

Satie. As in, Erik Satie? The French impressionistic pianist of the early 20th century? Dear lord, don’t even make me explain the lunacy of that.

Chic. Alright, I’ll give them a tiny bit of Chic, in that overly generalized dance-funk kind of mind set. However, in practice, you quickly discern that they actually sound nothing alike.

Quincy Jones-era Michael Jackson. This is just a gross generalization. It’s like saying you’re influenced by the Beatles or the Velvet Underground. In some form or another, you’re inevitably going to carry away elements those artists explored in their time. It’d be like if you were a musician and you said you were influenced by -sound-.

Bowie. Alright, yes, if you’re talking Let’s Dance, then yes, Black Gold has the similarly suave veneer of chirping guitar and diminished synthesizer chords.

The Brothers Gibb. As in, the Begees. I assume Black Gold is alluding to some of the vocal work on Picture Show EP. I could somewhat see this especially on ‘Shine’ with Ronick’s vocals climbing over a simple boardwalk piano.

The Band. What, because the Picture Show EP features a piano? Come on, now. The other ones, I can at least see in a “conventional music wisdom” kind of way, but the Band? Thats way off the deep end.

Picture Show EP is a half-hearted attempt at sounding like something cool. Black Gold does offer a bit of reprieve with their smooth but pronounced vocal harmonies. The problem is, all those tendencies to rely on chunking guitar choruses and rapid figure bass, pulls them right back into the gaggle of fiends whom are dancing around in post-punk’s graveyard - just for the hell of it.

Michael Tenzer