The Parlor Mob

The Parlor Mob's And You Were A Crow is going to be looked back on as one of 2008's seminal debut records. The Parlor Mob are more way than your average rock band. In fact, they create something refreshing, new and thought provoking. Songs shift from bar brawling rockers like "Hard Times" to pensive, blues-inspired epics like "Tide of Tears," complete with smoky leads and incredible instrumental virtuousity. New Jersey has found some new favorite sons in these five young rockers.

The album's standout is an acoustic piece called "When I was An Orphan." It slowly builds from an organic, acoustic melody that sees vocalist Mark Melicia stretching his voice to the rock and roll pantheon in back. His lyrics paint a dark, but vivid picture, telling a heart wrenching story of love lost. The song traverses a spectrum of pain and gives the band a moment to shine. In fact, it's the kind of acoustic ballad that'll be a live staple for years to come, ending with a huge sing-a-long after the a huge vocal catharsis. Back on the sunnier side, "Can't Keep No Good Boy Down" oozes rock and roll bravado, and it illustrates the band's dynamic. The Parlor Mob can do dark, pensive ruminations and pain, and they can also paint the town red with riffs. Melicia also relays some poignant stories through his intelligent and artistic lyrics. In fact, the record out plays out like a movie positing cohesive tales in each song. It's got the classic rock boundlessness without merely ripping off the classics. Rock fans, join this mob immediately. You won't regret it.

—Rick Florino
04.28.08

Having weathered so much adversity in their short career (starting with the demise of their original label and indefinite shelving of their first EP), the members of Red Bank, NJ's the Parlor Mob must be breathing a collective sigh of relief over the release of their first album, And You Were a Crow, in early 2008. If not, then at the very least it seems that the weight of these worries actually benefited the precocious quintet's songwriting, by lending a little extra weight of resolve and authenticity to their rootsy, retro-fueled but nevertheless contemporary sounding hard rock. This stems from a veritable melting pot of '70s influences, which the Parlor Mob go to great lengths to break down into their various basic ingredients before building them back up into exciting groove rockers like "Dead Wrong" and "Real Hard Headed," as well as beguiling, paired-down acoustic numbers such as "Angry Young Girl" and "Can't Keep No Good Boy Down," so that only a few anal retentive music obsessives might recognize their origins. These nods to the past include Mark Melicia's high-pitched, Geddy Lee-like vocals, session organs backing up funky guitar riffs reminiscent of Mark III Deep Purple (see "Bullet"), and some energized boogie in opening foot stomper "Hard Times," which reworks and soups up ZZ Top's unmistakable "Tush" riff. The shadow of a certain, very large Zeppelin also looms especially large over the Parlor Mob's work as a whole, but really comes to the fore on the guitar inversions of "Everything You're Breathing For," the surprisingly supple folk sensitivity culminating in "Kashmir"-like bombast of "When I Was an Orphan," and the simply spectacular "Tide of Tears," where Zep's classic, cathartic blues ballad, "Since I've Been Loving You," provides the essential framework upon which the Mob build their own, slow burning, quite epic (and possibly epochal) masterpiece. And while they may chafe at comparisons to Australian trio Wolfmother, the Parlor Mob also see fit to re-record all four songs from their eponymous EP for this release (including the funky "Carnival of Crowes" and irresistible should-be single, "The Kids Ain't Alright"), without nary a change to their previously conceived arrangements, save for the scaling back of those once very prevalent keyboards. Taken as a whole, all these elements help make And You Were a Crow a very impressive effort, worthy of the band's tortuous path towards its creation ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide