Great Civilizations

Album review

Former Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin's alt rock ensemble Skysaw delivers an ambitious and sturdy psych- and prog rock-inflected debut with 2011's Great Civilizations. Besides Chamberlin's frenetic, commanding percussion, the album also features vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Mike Reina and guitarist Anthony Pirog, who more than hold their own here. In fact, with Reina writing all the lyrics and fronting the band with his yearning, literate vocals, Skysaw is as much about his own Baroque pop, melodic rock leanings as anything else. While there are a few common touchstones between Skysaw and the Pumpkins -- especially a love of '70s hard rock -- the truth is that nobody would ever need to compare the two bands. Where Smashing Pumpkins were more inclined toward fuzzed-out guitar bombast and arch, post-goth modern rock hits, Skysaw create sparkling pop landscapes that are more ELO and Todd Rundgren than Led Zeppelin or Bauhaus. Produced by legendary rock producer Roy Thomas Baker, Great Civilizations has a sparkling, expansive quality befitting the '70s-influenced melodic rock and prog that Skysaw are clearly enamored of. Tracks like the "Capsized Jacknife Crisis" and the atmospheric "Am I Second" are generously melodic, uplifting rock anthems with little Moog and Mellotron bits, and Pirog's pristinely executed rock guitar solos that bring to mind Queen's Brian May. Similarly, the title track is a dance-rock-inflected anthem that works to contemporize the album nicely, placing it somewhere between the post-punk revival of the Editors and the ambitious singer/songwriter rock of Ed Harcourt. Ultimately, Skysaw's Great Civilizations registers less as a vanity project and more as a the work of a band of like-minded musicians with Chamberlin's propulsive whirl of rhythm set against memorable and sweeping pop epics.
© Matt Collar /TiVo