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Fernando, True Instigator (self-released, 2009)
Fernando Viciconte was one of the first of the indie musicians to relocate from SoCal to Portland, and he's been playing and recording there for more than a decade now. I've been a fan since I saw him in full band mode do a blistering set at a little bar in Independence, Oregon, with the short-lived Flat Irons opening but I haven't kept up with him much since the late '90s, so I'm ecstatic to find that with True Instigator he's even better than I remembered. This is Fernando's seventh release. Some have been solo, but this is a full-on rock record with a band of some of Portland's best. It's full of variety and well-sequenced, running from quiet acoustic ballads to up-tempo rockers. But where Viciconte, with his supple tenor voice, in the past has looked to Beatles pop and Byrds jangle for his lightly Latin-influenced rock, he's in full Americana mode now, as he makes clear with the opener, a cover of Luke the Drifter's (a.k.a. Hank Williams Sr.) powerfully pensive "Angel of Death." It's a superb arrangement, a slow march tempo with droning bass and distant drum, with some eerie electric feedback that erupts into harsh guitar jangle between the chorus and the verses. Other rockers include the mid-tempo title track, a populist rant against those who horde their riches and flaunt them in the faces of those with less, with some very hot guitar work; the uptempo "Word from the Inside," which has a little bit of surf in its twang and lyrics that could have come from the Berry-Greenwich songbook about "the saddest girl in town"; and the punkabilly rave-up of "Wander." The slower and quieter numbers have a similar range and variety. "It's a Shame" would sit well on a Los Super Seven project, a love song in six beats with acoustic bass and maracas for accents; "Remember Me" has a sighing female chorus, fingerpicked acoustic guitar and a melody reminiscent of John Prine at his prettiest; and "Beautiful," which appeared on an earlier album, plods along with acoustic guitar and drums behind its Carver-esque portrayal of decadent night life until its waltz-tempo coda starts, the melody played on a highly distorted electric guitar. Add in the slow-burning country rock of "Kissing the Lips of God," with Lewi Longmire on the B-3 organ and Mike Coykendall on baritone guitar, plus the Spanish-language "Selos," which builds from an unaccompanied vocal first verse to full-on spaghetti-western melodrama, complete with Farfisa organ from bassist Joe Chuisano and trumpet from Paul Brainard, and what more could you ask for on a rock album? How about the closing track, the lovely and sad "At the World's End," which builds to an outro that swells with trumpet, B-3 and saxophone from Joe "Sly Pig" Cunningham (Blue Crane, Decemberists). Oh, and did I neglect to mention two arresting little instrumental waltzes that pop up between some of the tracks? By all rights, this should be Fernando's break-out album. It's that good. You can download it free until about mid-May 2009 from his Web site. After that, it'll be available from the usual digital sources.
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