If you like music, and based on our demographic research, you do, you're always looking for the next big thing. Maybe you're like the masses and just want something sweet and easy to swallow, if such a metaphor can be extended to things going into your ear, or if you're more of an elitist snob like me; you're looking for the next unsung hero.
Gabe Dixon, along with his cleverly named Gabe Dixon Band, sings like an unsung bird like none I've heard in years. In case I got too rich on the hypothetical there, that's a compliment.
Back in my rampant CD buying days I bought any and everything I heard that I even remotely liked, and while the likes of Counting Crows and Blues Traveler rewarded my undue faith, there were always a few crap piles in the mix that made me hearken forward to the unimaginable days when iTunes would afford me the luxury of just buying the track I wanted, rather than suffering through the whole 45-minute set, thank you not-so-much, Elastica.
A promising band I'd found back in those pre-Napster days was Ben Folds Five, which was wonderful, despite its decidedly low-fi production and conspicuous lack of attention to much aside from whomever it was that was calling at the end of that one otherwise brilliant track. Ben Folds is a wonderful writer, no matter how preposterous his name is, and his music is almost as good.
Ben Folds has gone on to Hollywood soundtrack fame and fortune, even while axing his tagalong band at the ostensible expense of his reputation (and perhaps even his soul), but I haven't been able to find the same joy in him as a solo artist as the tracks like whatever number of angry dwarves it was that made him famous.
The Gabe Dixon Band is similar to that style of music, but better in so many ways.
Maybe it's because he isn't big enough to shuffle off his backing band, or because he's still unencumbered by the expectations of a mainstream market, but I suspect it's something bigger than that. Why is Gabe Dixon better than Ben Folds? Pardon me for my non-professional judgment, but I'd suggest it's because Gabe Dixon doesn't suck.
Ben Folds (with or without his supplemental "five") had a great sound, killer lyrics, and memorable riffs that weren't so typically "pop" that they would stick in your head and drive you insane. Imagine all those good things, except with a lead singer who can actually sing.
The Gabe Dixon Band isn't a knockoff, they're the real deal. They've recorded enough and I've heard it all, and they are their own originals, though everybody (worth anything) at least kind of sounds like somebody else. Gabe Dixon doesn't exactly sound like Ben Folds, but it's reminiscent, only better… yep, better.
There are a couple releases out there, and I recommend them both. If you're looking to book a band in the Northeast, you'll pick no better. They are rock enough to please the progressives, pleasant enough to placate the conservatives, and all in all just a great listen either way.
I found them through Pandora.com, and if you're a decidedly cheap bastard (like me), do as I did and create a new station on Pandora with them as the starting point. It's good music, it's fun and easy to get hooked into, and it frankly makes an afternoon online with headphones that much easier to get through.
