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We review the Toms River native's latest, "Songs for a...
As the dispatchers of noise scratch and claw for higher ground, Red Bank tunesmith Scott Liss towers with reserved confidence, a leviathan of technical prowess and a virtuoso among so many scampering minimalists.
On their latest, "The Blackpool Letters,'' Liss and his band the Sixty Six (bassist Gianni Scalise and drummer Chris Donofrio) remind us that no amount of pseudo-indie posturing can substitute for natural-born talent and that, against all obstacles, those with the chops can and will ascend to the highest ranks.
Liss is a composer of the highest order, constructing lyrical and harmonic arrangements that run with progressive leanings on vintage blues, psychedelia and rock 'n' roll.
Anchored by dense, sprawling soundscapes, thanks in large to the production of Parlor Mob's Paul Ritchie, ""The Blackpool Letters'' is an innovative display of raw musicianship by three of Asbury hardest-working and most uncompromised musical talents, who have honed their game performing with such acts as Last Perfect thing, Ashes are Nutritious and Nicole Atkins.
Scott Liss & the Sixty-Six celebrated the release of "The Blackpool Letters'' with a blowout show June 11 at Asbury Lanes, and the band hopes to repeat that measure of fanfare at hometown performance June 30 at the Downtown, where they'll be joined by Brick & Mortar.
Since relocating from Philadelphia to Red Bank in 2007, Liss has recorded and collaborated with such local names as Ritchie, Dave Rosen and Sam Bey (also of the Parlor Mob; Anthony Chick and Jef Plate of Sikamor Rooney and Nicole Atkins. Liss banded the Sixty-Six in early 2008, as a temporary vehicle custom-fit for a joyride down to Austin, Texas, for that year's South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival.
"The Mob, Sikamor Rooney, Nicole Atkins, we're all kind of intertwined, I guess,'' Liss said in a 2008 interview. ""We're all out for the same thing, and there's a good sense of kinship. People are there to play on each others' records, to fill in and play live when they
can and basically just be supportive. To have people watching your back like that, believing in what you're doing, nothing else comes close to that.''
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/nightonlyvisual.
