Thunder's second strike

The Star Tribune

April 28, 2006

Chris Riemenschneider

Building in the promise that they’re not like any other band—at least noy in the Twin Cities—woozy and swaying piano-rock band Thunder in the Valley has come a long, long way on its second CD, “A Long, Long Walk,” which it is promoting tonight at the Turf Club.

A whopping 12 guest musicians are credited on the disc, and you can really hear them all. Songs like “Altar” and “John Ray and Mary Brown” are full of rowdy horn parts and/or warped strings, and “The Wealthy Skeleton” even employs the musical saw. Throughout, the band’s booming choruses seem to range on size from three singers to 30.

There’s so much going on, the disc often sounds like a crowded piano bar in some eastern-European small town. Singer Graham Smith doesn’t get drowned out, though, coming off like a cross between Robert Smith and Tom Waits (seriously) in “So the Story Goes” and other bouncinig gems. I told you the band wasn’t like anything else in town.