Time Out New York,
April 29-May 6, 2004

Moviola
East of Eager
(Anyway)

Before indie rock was hijacked by young gentlemen who maintain posh heads of hair and play ‘80s music, it was dominated by bands like Moviola—that is, guys with cheap haircuts playing 60s music.  To suggest that shlubby musicians are automatically superior to the young comers would be presumptuous, not to mention discriminatory against the sexy.  But the old guard did chart a movement that felt legitimately underground, sketching an alternate history of pop wherein entire canons could be recorded in living rooms and trickled into a handful of stereos.

East of Eager, Moviola’s sixth album, probably continues along that path.  In the past, the Columbus, Ohio, quintet, has recorded at home, in a cold-storage facility and in a converted cement factory; here, the musicians set up inside a barn.  The results sound appropriately leisurely and well ventilated, as tunes roll at unhurried tempos and Ohio State University music students drift in with splashes of strings and horns as if they’re dropping by for coffee.  All five band members contribute songs to the album—yes, even the drummer—and styles range from Kinks-ish pop to pastoral lullabies.  Mostly, however, Moviola taps the spirit of NRBQ, another open-ended combo that swings to its own trends.  The album plays like a murmur from the old world, softly tracing a fading movement in pop music that never really was.—Jay Ruttenberg