South San Gabriel could perhaps be described as the whispering, drawling cousin of Centro-Matic, incessantly stopping by to borrow microphones to steal liquor. It might be the downtrodden night shift chain smoker to Centro-Matic's scatterbrained, fuzz tone-addicted janitorial enthusiast. Nevertheless, the two entities are quite familiar with one another, and thus far the relationship appears to be in no need of clinical help.
While South San Gabriel has no formal, concrete lineup, it presently claims Centro-Matic's Scott Danbom, Mark Hedman, Will Johnson, Matt Pence and Stumptone's Chris Plavidal as "workers" on its humble payroll sheet. Scott is a recreational smoker, constantly checking the weather. Mark obsesses over the art of athletes' names (ex: Amp Lee; Pork Chop Womack). Will occasionally works as a certified Radiation I technician. Matt stands unequalled when discussing the science of snack foods. Chris and his fiancee, Penny, will be wed in Mineral Wells, TX in 2001. Fervent supporters of the Madman Farmhand Work Ethic, South San Gabriel quarters itself in the greater North Texas region of the USA, where the winters are unidentifiable and small town high school football is king.
Its first full-length release, South San Gabriel Songs/Music is a sparsely played collection of American southern goth melody involving character/victims of isolation, misplacement and desperation.
Amidst Plavidal's orchestration of noises, feedback and sound trickery, Songs/Music is as quiet as it can possibly be in the loudest of possible ways. Immediacy through restraint is the idea throughout Songs/Music, as heard in the beautiful softspoken "Innocence Kindly Waits" with Danbom's explosive warbling violin part. Johnson's crackling voice is as close to real emotion as you can get in songs like "The Fireworks Treatment" and the piercingly heartfelt piano driven "One Hundred Thousand Bridesmaids". If the song "Proud Son of Gaffney" represents the Centro-Matic - like sonic pop mastery, the rough-edged acoustics of "Glacial Slurs" rubs shoulders with fellow Texanite folk re-innovators like The Baptist Generals or The Gourds. Oftentimes relying only on the framework of simple melody, songs such as "Destroyer" employ only a vocal and the melody of a cheap Harmony guitar. The fragile shiftiness of South San Gabriel's sound aligns appropriately with that of its instrumentation and personnel. It's all part of Danbom's simple plan to have them all huddled around the Weather Channel, smoking cheap cigarettes by Christmastime.
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