Posted on Fri, Mar. 01, 2002     Contra Costa Times
 
A conspiracy of talent swirls around Oswald
TONY HICKS: Pop Music Critic

OSWALD GUITARIST Dale Cucchiaro pauses when I tell him why I paged him only minutes after we hung up the phone. I don't blame him.

I want to know where the band's name comes from. Although I have a pretty good idea, my boss still clings to the dusty old theory that writers should verify things they put in the newspaper.

"Well ... it ... I don't know," says Cucchiaro, a UC Berkeley student and 1996 graduate of Danville's San Ramon Valley High School. "It's kind of something we're all fascinated in -- the various conspiracies surrounding (the JFK shooting)."

Cucchiaro just finished 15 minutes of conversation about his band, how they record and their artistic interests. Now this newspaper guy wants to talk conspiracies.

I won't make Dale into some conspiracy nut -- because he's not. He goes on to explain that drummer Chad Cochran knew someone who had a dog named Oswald, and it sounded like a pretty good name.

Pretty good name for a very good band. It's another reason to hope that maybe good -- and serious -- music is on its way back. And, for being such an unserious guy, I couldn't be happier.

Movements and sounds usually take a few years to filter down to club musicians, typically with varied results. Oswald plays mood music -- call it Radiohead-influenced if you'd like, but that's not doing Oswald justice. It's so much more accessible, with elements of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, the Cure and probably dozens more.

"There's a lot of bands out there, but there's a succession of bands interesting in songwriting," says Cucchiaro. "The Beatles, Nirvana, Radiohead ... that's where the influences come in."

Oswald just released "A Failed Attempt to Alter History," a well-produced record that was recorded entirely in Cucchiaro's Martinez living room. Though the quality is outstanding for originating in someone's house, the recording wasn't without its problems.

"The initial plan was to be done in a month," he says. "Then the computers crashed and we nearly lost some vocal tracks. We actually lost two songs."

Those songs will have to wait for the next Oswald release. The first one has lots of great moments, from the artsy and moody title track (which is where they'll get a lot of the Radiohead comparisons) to "16 Years Until 40," which sounds like Pearl Jam delicately taking on a Cure song. "No Grapes" is the record's high point, with a hooky chorus emerging from a built-up and richly-delivered guitar progression that could be on the most discriminating of rock radio stations.

Cucchiaro began playing with brothers Eric (vocals) and Chad Cochran (drums) at San Ramon Valley High in the mid-'90s. They drifted off to college, but managed to keep the music alive until about a year ago, when they teamed with Michigan natives Paul Zeroh (keyboards) and Mike Allen (bass), whom Chad met at art school.

The songs are about alienation and other daily topics that strike them. Oswald has been working on perfecting the art of translating a good record into a live show where, unlike the studio, the band "lets the emotion dictate where we're going to go. But we're total perfectionists in the studio."

You can check out the record at www.oswaldmusic.net. The band's next scheduled show is April 10 at Jupiter in Berkeley, though they expect to add more dates before then. Check the Web site for updates.

 

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 From the San Ramon Valley Wolfprint Feb. 8, 2001 


Oswald: a great band with roots at SR

Ian Port Front/M&E Editor 

This month the subject of my column comes not from some far-distant place, nor from the murky depths of my own mind, but from the San Ramon campus itself. Some of you who know Chad Cochran, the latest addition to the art faculty here at San Ramon, may also know that he plays drums in a band called Oswald. On occasion of the release of Oswald's first studio record, I think it's time to spotlight Mr. Cochran, his band, and the music they play. 

Photo and 3-D Art teacher Chad Cochran has been playing drums for over 10 years, and playing music with his older brother, guitarist and vocalist Eric Cochran for 8. Between them, they've written about 55 songs and have been the core of several bands. One of their old bands was Sodium, a fairly successful band Chad drummed for while he served his years as a student at San Ramon. 

Oswald has been Chad and Eric's project for about the last one-and-a-half years. They've played all over the Bay Area, including Paradise Lounge and Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco, not to mention places like the Lafayette Sports Bar and Grill, as well as venues in Concord and Walnut Creek. Starting last June, the band went into the studio to produce their own self funded record, which was released on January 15. 

The record, which is titled A failed attempt to alter history, spent a lot of time in-the post-production stages, being remastered and remixed, and that becomes vividly apparent from the first second to the last. It sounds extremely clean — easily as good as an expensive label- sponsored record, which is a rare thing among records of this type. It isn't raw or harsh, but smooth, well-mixed, and rich with sound. 

Oswald has produced a record that is not merely a collection of songs, but one single, continuous audio vision, an album that flows evenly from one song to another and always seems to pick up just where it left off. Cochran and his brother learned their instruments playing early new-metal and grunge, and for influences like that, A failed attempt to alter history sounds surprisingly mellow — almost every song has at least a few acoustic guitar parts to it, and heavily distorted electric guitar is used as more of an accent or a lead device than a staple, which is usually the opposite of most modern rock songs. 

"We find more soul in an acoustic guitar," Cochran explained to me. It is an unfamiliar new twist, for my ears at least, but a welcome one. From start to finish A failed attempt to alter history works more at evoking a dark, morose feeling than it does at pelting its listeners with heavy drums and crunchy guitars. Where one band would simply turn up the volume and add another guitar part, Oswald instead cuts to just acoustic guitar and vocals, then comes back up with drums and distorted guitar as a final phrase, rather than the whole statement itself. 

This style works well, but it does take some getting used to. On the first listen through, the record can sound a little slow and tired in some places. Much of this goes away on further listening, though, when the listener realizes that this isn't a sound that will confront you with what it's trying to say — it makes you work a little at figuring it out. When you reach that point in listening to it, the depth of the music really becomes apparent — and, unlike a lot of rock bands, there is a lot of depth to be revealed. As with any other record, some tracks are better than others, but there are no "bad" songs on this record. The best tracks are often the most complicated, with multilayered arrangements and space for the most creative aspects of every instrument to be fully developed. 

A failed attempt to alter history is good. It might even be great. It doesn't need any qualifying statements. It doesn't need any explanations. After listening to it more than seven times straight though, my suspicions have been confirmed. This isn't a good home produced record, it isn't a good record from a new band — it's just a really, really good record. The songwriting is good, the quality is good, the vocals are good... .you get the idea? If this wasn't a record from a teacher I like, if this wasn't a record from a San Ramon band, I would still go out and drop 16, 17, or 18 bucks on it and go home grinning like a little boy. If you're smart, you'll drop nine bucks and find out what I mean. By the time you're reading this, copies will be available on their website at www.oswaldmusic.net. 
  

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