TonyDoug's CD Review

by tonydoug wright

Grenadier, Hand Offensive (Ubique, 2005)

THE BAND: Craig Swafford, Jeremy Heroldt and Mark Mattson

THE HISTORY: Grenadier is based out of Dekalb, IL and features veterans of the Chicago music scene. Hand Offensive is the debut release from the band, on their very own Ubique label.

THE REVIEW: There was a time when I played the Command and Conquer video games religiously. The point of the game was to successfully create and defend a fully functional base while at the same creating an army of soldiers, tanks, planes, etc to defend your base and to blow up the base of your enemy. One type of soldier that you could create, which proved very useful to me, was the grenadier. For me the grenadier was perfect for secret deployments to blow up enemy installations because the grenadier could hide in the woods and toss grenade after grenade at an enemy installation until it was obliterated. The best tactic was to create a small group of grenadiers and then send them out with some support from the infantry troops. Sure, I could have used a platoon of soldiers armed with flamethrowers but when one guy went down, he took the whole group with him.

Let’s now stray away from my glory days of playing Command and Conquer and focus upon the debut release of the Dekalb, IL band Grenadier. On my initial listen to Hand Offensive, I immediately noticed the vocal similarities between lead singer Jeremy Heroldt and Steely Dan’s Donald Fagan. Musically, Grenadier has been influenced by certain 70s bands but they have been able to take their influences and mold them into a laid-back sound that makes a majority of Hand Offensive an enjoyable listening experience.

"Death Ray", one of the stronger tracks on Hand Offensive, opens the album with a song that certainly comes off as a fantastic blend of Steely Dan and The Flaming Lips. From there Grenadier strikes gold with three well-crafted tracks "Karma See Thru", "Powerless" and "Way Too Close" that all show exceptional talent from Grenadier. If this band can release an albums worth of songs equal to or better than the previously discussed tracks then Grenadier could be come a golden boy for the world of Indie Rock.

WEBSITE: www.grenadiermusic.com