Pop quiz: You are in the checkout line and you feel someone staring at you. It is in fact five someones staring at you from the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. You look over and who do you see? If you said, THE SAME BAND YOU ALWAYS SEE, you get an A.

LINKS:
WS -www.frankbango.com
MP3 -
OTHER - interview with the deli

Frank Bango "The Unstudied Sea"
what it is	Well-written, layered melodies for the thinking man
reminding of	If Elvis Costello had lunch with The Beach Boys while on the phone with Dan Bern, Frank Bango would be their waiter.
what works	A sense of freshness in arrangements and lyric.
what could be better	People with talent could get signed.

It's that band with those young fem-bot guys with that haircut wearing those jeans from Urban Outfitters and looking very, very sad. Yes, there are a couple of those sad fem-bots who make very good music, but sometimes you just want a song!

Frank Bango's second and most recent CD The Unstudied Sea is anything but unstudied. Instead, it is a thoughtful journey underwater where songs meander to surprising places.

"A Clear Eye for Daisy" leads off with some charming guitar that leads the song in and out of a memory of what sounds like quite a girl (Keep a Clear Eye for Daisy/In this room or maybe just in the whole wide world/bitter tears in water guns/three cheers for anyone who loves that girl). As other voices enter and begin to layer on top of one another, the song takes on a feeling of being very happy in a meadow. Frank Bango's harmonies reward close listening and for that this song is linked to "Always looking up," a gem that pops up later in the album.

"Are you now now or have you ever been?" is a spirited accusal, carried along by punchy guitar. "Museums" sets a quieter tone as the speaker and indeed the instruments seem to reflect on themselves. The beginning piano chords of the "The Ugly Version" are misleading: it is not the theme to a sitcom where two men dress like women to get an apartment to one of the cities' most prime habitations. It is instead a bright melody in many parts that details the slow transformation of amore to annoyance. It also contains the highly singable line "the ugly version is a pretty girl's burden."

After the bouncy (is that squeaking a rubber duck?), beautiful "Always Looking Up," Bango becomes more introspective as his thoughts turn to love. "Roses are not red" is a moving piece interjected with a somewhat confusing carnival bridge. When I saw Frank Bango open for Mike Doughty, he and the Magic Fingers did a version of "Does the bitter moon really care how dark it gets?" that exploded at the end into some great 50's style wailing. Compared to that, I found myself wishing that the album version wasn't so reigned in, although it allows the CD to end on some very satisfying piano.

Frank Bango is not THE SAME BAND YOU ALWAYS SEE. He cares enough to craft The Unstudied Sea around a theme (count all the "buried" references to underwater, fish, or the sea in this supposed unstudied sea) and cares enough to layer his voices and instruments in some seemingly impossible melodies and strains (the violin and cello in the "Lottery Pieces" sound like walking in Athens, GA in 1985). And, when joined by The Magic Fingers, you won't see this gent wearing those jeans with that haircut from Urban Outfitters. When they opened for Mike Doughty, Bango and The Magic Fingers wore actual blazers. Could it be they were tipping their caps to a time when musicians dressed for the show? Perhaps, more optimistically, they are a sign of the future.

What is Frank Bango's favorite deli and why does everyone say he reminds them of Elvis Costello? Check out his interview under "Meals!"