Reviews
Ten Songs from the Sideroom
Impact Press
August-September 2003
Readers' tapes TOP PICK
"You know how you need a shot of sake after a sushi bender?
Well, after you've digested all the punk and hardcore in your CD collection,
let Andrew Huber clean your palette. His soft acoustic songs are right
from the pages of James Taylor and Dan Fogelberg, and he even gets a little
rockin' and twangy on tracks like "Tearin' Me Down." Get your mellow on."
(SH)
Tokens, Trash, or Tarot Cards
Recording
Volume 16: Number 11, August 2003
Readers' tapes
"'The Present' is a driving male rock vocal song . . . Healthy
driving bass with good tone. We like the sound of the entire drum
kit. . . . A real band that can play tightly."
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PULSE of the Twin Cities
Volume 4: Issue 21, August 23, 2000
Gecko Club: Artist of the Week
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"The Gecko Club is more fun to listen to than the name might suggest. Operating
under the moniker since '94, Andrew Huber plays guitar and sings, Tom Huber
plays bass and keys, and Chris Kahl plays drums. The trio is augmented
by Christopher Collins on fiddle on a number of tracks. Tokens, Trash,
or Tarot Cards is all tension and melodies. This crew carries fuzz guitar
pop close to its collective heart. The overall sound of this record is
tuneful. The vocals are buried ever so slightly beneath the surface. [Songs]
like "Merry Merry" and "KellyAnne Sometimes" suggest a tuneful bittersweet
mood rather than hit the listener over the head. "Church For You" is a
blurry tapestry of sadness, and yet there is a smile through the tears.
Where there are obvious nods to anglo pop, there is also the stray homage
to bands like Psychadelic Furs or Peter Gabriel. Their cheerful yet pouty
songs manage to stick with you. Enjoying airplay in a number of markets
out east, and college radio in the midwest, Gecko Club seem to be well
on their way. Do you like subtle shimmering pop? Gecko Club's got the goods."
T. Alexander
Been Nowhere
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Cake Magazine, Issue # 25
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"My dictionary defines the gecko as a lizard with "a short, stout body,
a large head, and suction pads on its feet". A pretty apt description of
this local four piece, if you ask me. For the most part, their music can
be tagged as dreamy, psychadelic pop with few frills which, at its best,
ventures close to Robyn Hitchcock and the Chills. In fact, "Kaleidoscope"
is the best Chills' song I've never heard them do. At it's worst, there
is a self-importance to the orchestration they bring to some of the songs
(all four members boast classical training) which has a tendency to bring
things to a sloggy halt such as on "Everywhere Between Us". Regardless,
it's the music that matters and here it's quite good. In fact, these songs
are catchy enough and alluring enough to stick to you like, well, a gecko
would." (GK -- Cake Magazine, issue # 25)