Magnet Magazine (May - June 04)

Moviola
East of Eager

Over the course of 10 years and five albums, Moviola has cultivated a reputation as one of Ohio's most dependable players. Yet like the diligent, always-on-time employee who consistently gets passed over for promotion, Moviola sometimes blends into the background (nobody in the band wears leather trousers, boffs models, or does scissor kicks onstage).

On East of Eager, the group--recently expanded to a five-piece and completely divested of its early shamble-pop approach--remains low-key, but as a collective study of musos who've been soaking in their record collections since the cradle, the album is akin to a welcome visit from an old friend. Echoes of genial Neil Young circa Comes a Time can be heard in several songs, notably "The Ghost of Daniel Boone," with its pedal steel, upright piano, shuffling beat and frontiersman lyrical metaphors. Also figuring largely in the vibe is the Band, whos rustic heartland vision is clearly evident in the good-timey strums and boozy horn charts of "Hitched." Other influences include the Bakersville school of twang and Muswell Hillbillies-era Kinks.

Moviola '04: an artful practitioner of Midwestern Americana, the kind where dependability and a steady hand on the wheel count for a lot more than most people realize. -- Fred Mills