“It’s Not Safe”
from the album Little Buildings
2008
iTunes
Gentleman Reg (Rey Vermue) has been something of the Zelig (or Forrest Gump, to more popular cinema-types) of Canadian indie-rock: he was member of The Hidden Cameras, toured with Tegan & Sara and Stars, has served back-up in Broken Social Scene, Sufjan Stevens, and Final Fantasy, and has had members of Constantines, Arcade Fire, Islands and more in his own backing bands. Yet his two full-lengths, 2002’s Make Me Pretty and 2004’s Darby & Joan, never made it stateside. But in 2009 Arts & Crafts will finally bring Reg to the U.S. of A. in Jet Black — and are introducing America to the Gentleman with Little Buildings EP, a collection of Pretty and Darby tracks, plus one original, “Something to Live For.”
As well as being rather unique in appearance (Reg cameoed — without Eddie Murphy-style massive make-up — as an albino in John Cameron Mitchell’s Short Bus), Reg has a unique voice: almost alto-high, but soft, even breathy. If overplayed, his vocals could be grating, but Reg not only backs it up with strong instrumentation, but works to fit the two together. That comes out clearly on the five Darby tracks that start Little Buildings (and make up over half the release), nowhere more so than with opener “Bundle,” where Reg fits his voice in on both the driving verse and carrying chorus. While the sadder “Untouchable” is a mite too stripped, leaving Reg’s vox a little pitchy, the other Darby numbers are able to match voice and instrumentation well, and in different ways: “It’s Not Safe” is pressing and expansive, while everything is limited on the autumnal “Don’t Bring Me Down,” yet “The Boyfriend Song” is a catchy strum with an upbeat rhythm.
The first two Pretty pieces, “Give Me the Chance to Fall” and “The Three Most Important Girls,” are both a little too simple, the former swaying, the latter haunting. But Pretty‘s “You’re So Alone” just might be the finest track on this fine EP, a nice little press into a great, wide chorus that’s memorable and even single-worthy. Little Buildings closes out with the original “Something to Live For” (from the Darby recording sessions), a slower, darker track that’s almost alt-country but has real power.
Over the past couple of years, Toronto-based imprint Arts & Crafts have been slowly collecting all the bands that came out of the Canadian indie-rock explosion starting about five years ago, so it comes as no surprise that Gentleman Reg has gotten on the bus (following in the footsteps of Constantines, fellow alumni from the now-defunct Guelph, Ontario label Three Gut). And now the Gentleman is making his way to the States, and it’s about time.