CD Review: The Banner Year

“Remember that night you told me as long as I have faith in something I won’t be on my own?” - Bottomless

The Banner Year

TheBannerYear (2004)

This Saturday marks the final show for The Banner Year. Lead singer Jason Small is moving to… well.. not Texas. This is a pretty sad thing. I’ve made no bones about stating how much I really enjoy their music. But life goes on and I’m going to be standing there at the Red Eyed Fly this Saturday as they play their last chords as a band. Join me, won’t you?

The band has decided to have a digital release of The Banner Year’s fist album, 2004’s TheBannerYear. He sent me the songs, and I’ve been enjoying them for the last week. Now, the line-up from this album isn’t the current folks…. It’s just Small and others who he ended up working with.

But, if you have enjoyed the last two releases by The Banner Year (...And Straight On 'till Breakfast and What You Won’t Get) you’ll likely enjoy TheBannerYear as it’s the same style, same lyrical content, with some of the same self-deprecating humor for which Small is known.

Take, for instance, the first song, “Minute Of Your Time,” which is appropriately one-minute long. Then there’s “Circuits and Wires” which is where Small admits that he’s not quite human. “Night After Night” showcases Small’s signature slightly whiny voice (that’s a good thing). There’s a great cover of "Simon" originally be Austin ska legends The Impossibles.

The lyric I posted above the review is from the track, “Bottomless” which pretty much typifies a Banner Year song. It’s could be a break-up song. It could be a song about faith. It could be a track about finding a place in life.

The gem of this album has to be the final track, the ballad “I’ll Kill Everyone In This Bar” that leads off with the fantastic lyric: “Goodbye it seems our time is over now and I best be getting home because this bottle has run dry and if I have to be sober than I’d rather be alone.”

If you’d like to pick up a copy of this album, it’s being release electronically through Austin’s DoubleStereo.com. Follow this link to get it: http://www.doublestereo.com/items/the-banner-year-the-banner-year

And please join me in saying Goodbye to Banner Year at the Red Eyed Fly this Saturday November 13, 2010. It’s a good line-up with The Banner Year (midnight), Benny Versus The Beast (11p), Waiting For August(10p), Grenadier (9p),Oh No The Radio (8p).