Review: Southeast Engine, A Wheel Within A Wheel

Published February 22, 2008

Even though indie rock band Southeast Engine has been out of town on tour for the past few months, its name is as well known in Athens as the Burrito Buggy or The Ridges.

This national tour is in promotion for the band’s most recent release, 2007’s A Wheel Within A Wheel.

Southeast Engine formed in 2003 and has released two prior albums, Love is a Murder, a Mystery of Sortsin 2003 and Coming to Terms with Gravity in 2005. Members of the band are Adam Remnant, Leo DeLuca, Michael Lachman, Adam Torres and Jesse Remnant.

Despite Southeast Engine’s popularity and its ability to be signed to a record label — something many bands aspire to but never do — the band is still a tad bit overblown. The band’s music does achieve a nice balance between Woody Guthrie folk and Conor Oberst melodramatic indie rock musically and vocally, but the lyrics, which should really be the heart of such songs, don’t always pack a punch. Unfortunately, the band lacks Guthrie’s revolutionary 1960s impact and Oberst’s talent for perfectly absurd analogies.

Without these elements, the band’s music comes off — not surprisingly — sounding just like every other indie rock album. Such angst-ridden lyrics without some kind of unique twist of thought or wordplay just come off like a depressed teenager’s juvenile poetry. Such is the case in the song “Oh God, Let Me Back In,” where Remnant croons “If I return/would you take me back/teach me to learn/to face the facts.” Like all of us didn’t scrawl something similar in our biology notebooks during high school.

Conceptually, however, the band deserves credit for tying the “wheel” element to every song. “Pursuit of Happiness Part I” is quite catchy and manages to sink the hook “and everybody wants you … to keep inside their jewelry box” into listeners’ heads. The band also knows how to play quite well, and the album musically flows well from lazy croons to more upbeat, peppy songs to clap along to, such as “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel.”

The band will be returning to Athens briefly tomorrow to play at The Union and March 1 at Casa Nueva before it continues its tour with dates in Arkansas and the South by Southwest music festival in Texas.