The Stingers ATX
All in a Day (Grover) If the Stingers were any more old-school, they’d be the Skatalites. “Pickup,” All in a Day‘s instrumental opener, skanks like a Studio One master from early Sixties Jamaica. Wayne Myers’ tarnished trombone, chorused with guests Mace Hibbard (sax) and Rick White (trumpet), sounds fresh out of the pawn shop – as “street” as a dirt road. Jonny Meyers’ rhythmic precision on guitar, meanwhile, carves out a ribcage for Miguel Harvey to hang his Black Cat Casanova croon on. The rock-steady snap of “Let’s be in Love” sidles up to the woozy, shrugging “The Power.” Meyers, who wrote 10 of the disc’s dozen cuts, has the genre down, each track’s melodic simplicity matched by its streamlined groove. Less is never too little. There’s an easier pace to All in a Day than its predecessor, This Good Thing, the Austin sextet’s 2003 debut. In fact, there’s more groove here than songs, nothing really standing out after the aforementioned buzzes, the album’s midsection (“Can’t Wait,” “Strangely So,” “Painting Portraits”) soft until the blithe “Did I See You?” The Fifties doo-wop charm of “Come Home,” steel drum solo et al., belongs in the Caribbean version of Grease – not a hair out of place. The closing title track should be so well-groomed. Had All in a Day pooled its resources with the Stingers’ “Belly Rubbin'” Three Points EP earlier this year, the Skatalites would be one skank closer to retirement.
This article appears in May 14 • 2004.
