CITIZINE REVIEWS
'At-Work Radio' for Hipsters
Bedroom Walls and The 88 breathe new life
into adult contemporary sound.

by Thom White

The concept of ‘at-work radio’ is certainly not a new one, born naturally in the 1970s, as a necessity of sorts to rescue American workers and clientele from the tedium of being in an office or retail establishment on a regular basis.

What is now known as the ‘adult contemporary’ sound has come a long way since Lionel Richie and Hall & Oates first set the easy listening dance world aflame with their sweet nothings of escapist electric pop production. By 1986, after years of experience in banks, pharmacies, and department stores, American cultural leaders had determined that a steady diet of ‘positive noise pollution,’ that is, the music of Eric Neville and Linda Ronstadt, Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, Billy Joel, and Bonnie Raitt, could actually a) improve the worker, increasing productivity, and b) benefit the customer or patient.

One simple rule is at play with at-work radio, and it holds true to this day. It is something university scholars call ‘musical inoffensivity’: The music must be upbeat and catchy, but never get so loud as to disturb or awaken co-workers, or so noisy as to irritate customers or dental patients.

After countless successes in the 1980s using this potent musical formula, the adult contemporary movement stalled a bit post-Michael Bolton. A new genre of feminized rock or “adult alternative” came into being by 1994, and artists such as Counting Crows and Sarah MacLachlan carried this easy listening style into the “alternative rock” scene. It is now the new millenium and the adult alternative style has been transformed again, this time by Santa Monica, Calif.’s KCRW radio.

KCRW finds itself in 2004 as the undisputed “at-work” station for working hipsters and Angelenos in the know. Pioneer of this new wave of at-work radio is KCRW’s program director, Nic Harcourt. Nic occasionally bestows his seal of approval upon selected bands by allowing them to perform on his popular Morning Becomes Eclectic program. One could assert that two new LA groups who have appeared on Harcourt’s morning show and been given steady rotation on KCRW throughout the day, The 88 and Bedroom Walls, are prime exemplars of the innovative KCRW “at-work radio” sound.

Bedroom Walls is the brainchild of one Adam Goldman who writes and arranges all the songs. Already, the pet sounds of two songs by Bedroom Walls, “A Dog’s Life” and “More ‘Real Cats’”, have received extensive airplay on KCRW during ‘at-work radio’ peak hours.
The compositions on this debut album I saw you coming back to me are played primarily by Goldman and two other musicians, with rare but interesting visitations from a trumpet & flute. The instrumentals create a background sound that adds a new layer of steady pleasure as you tool about town or around your living room or office space.

These pleasurable sound waves can change moods with a feminine swing -- from a jolly gait to a tempo not slowed but more pensive and lethargic. Goldman’s flanged, arpeggiated guitar supports the drums and keyboard melodies. This music is more about guitar than vocals or any other instrument. Most pieces are largely instrumental, with no extended singing.

The 88 is composed of five dapper men, veterans of the thriving Los Angeles pop-rock scene. They are well-dressed, of gentle demeanor, and they never get too loud.

The record starts off strong with “All the Same” and “Elbow Blues.” This is POP music -- the songs follow certain melodic patterns and structures and the melodies and chords play off in a standardized way. It’s a familiar style that hearkens back to later Beatles, just to name one of the scores and scores of other rockin’ bands who have serenaded the masses with similar pop creations, groups that have appeared and disappeared in the last forty years of pop-rock history. And this is at-work radio at its finest.

The memorable “Sunday Afternoon” toward the conclusion of the disc gives the listener a glimpse at the melodic/harmonic hooks that The 88 is capable of bringing together, a pop sound that reminds you of no other song, but is sugarsweet in its own right.

The 88
Kind of Light
(EMK / Mootron, 2003)

Bedroom Walls
I saw you coming back to me
(Giant Pets, 2003)

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