Dorks And Losers

The truth is most bands never achieve suc­cess — com­mer­cial or crit­i­cal suc­cess. The ded­i­cated bands strive to make qual­ity music, and the suc­cess will fol­low. The Sam­ples (and Phish comes to mind) have fol­lowed such a road of being dumped by their record label, but con­tin­u­ing to make their music. Their com­bi­na­tion of folk, reg­gae and rock makes sooth­ing sounds and body-swaying induced movements.

Recently, I attended a fes­ti­val sup­port­ing the envi­ron­ment, and there was a Sam­ples cover band. The music com­pletely fit with the atmos­phere — friendly peo­ple, good food and hav­ing fun in the nat­ural sur­round­ings. Relax­ation is the best word to describe The Samples.

Most of the songs include instru­men­tal solos or just the instru­ments them­selves. The music is as impor­tant as the lyrics, maybe even more. On tracks like “Tak­ing Us Home,” the music is more dis­tinct than the lyrics. “Birth Of Words” help show that this band could just cut the lyrics out entirely of their songs and still make good music.

“Still Water” shows that the band can rock with its stir­ring gui­tar intro and gen­tle vocals. One is reminded of arena rock bal­lads inside an open sta­dium. The range changes from crowds wav­ing their arms in the air of “Walted Up” to the Pink Floyd/Bob Mar­ley influ­enced “Nitrous Fall.” Main­stream audi­ences might never hear of The Sam­ples, but they will always have a home in open-air con­certs and festivals.

[pho­tos via The Sam­ples]
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Track list:

1. Feel Us Shak­ing
2. Birth Of Words
3. Walted Up
4. When It’s Rain­ing
5. Did Ya Ever Look So Nice
6. 14th And Euclid
7. Tak­ing Us Home
8. Lit­tle Sil­ver Ring
9. Still Water
10. Nitrous Fall
11. Water Rush
12. Only To You
13. Weight Of The World
14. My Town (live 1992)
15. Sum­mer­time
16. Nature
17. When The Day Is Done

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