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Press: OC Metro
Writer: Jennifer Corday
CD Review: The Brook Lee Catastrophe - "Mistakes Pt. 1"
Date: Thursday, December 8th, 2005
Beautiful Catastrophe
OC musician Brook Lee creates powerful synergy with eclectic band.
Orange County's own Brook Lee has released a beautiful catastrophe. Make no mistake, this is the same Brook Lee who won Best Male Acoustic Act at the 2004 Orange County Music Awards, and the same Brook Lee who croons and charms the ladies throughout OC coffeehouses and nightclubs while strumming his six-string. The “catastrophe” is what Lee fondly calls the hodgepodge of Orange County musicians who accidentally converged in the studio and emerged with some beautiful results on his third release, Mistakes Pt. 1. Thus the group Brook Lee Catastrophe was born.
It was while Lee was on a West Coast tour that he met Paul Mitchell, who was fronting his own band, Calico Days, at the time. The two discussed their dreams and ambitions and found they had a common goal to make a great record. The chance encounter gelled into repeated meetings and discussions until the two decided to begin working together. With Brook Lee's talent as a songwriter and front man, and Mitchell's ideas and talent in the studio, the two formed a great team.
Lee says that as the recording sessions progressed, “I began to realize that the songs and ideas were getting bigger than just me. It became an amalgamation of all these players coming through, and I wanted to acknowledge that.”
Mistakes Pt. 1 opens a new chapter in Lee's career, and catapults him into the big leagues. It's a very professional production and a beautiful collection of songs packaged with clarity and vision. All 11 tracks are impressively engineered, produced and mixed by Mitchell, a wiz in the studio and a real talent on the strings.
Lee spent almost two years recording over 30 songs inside Mitchell's tiny Long Beach apartment, playing guitar and singing on all the tracks after which Mitchell brought in an arsenal of local musicians to create the flowing melodic undercurrent beneath Lee's signature guitar compositions. With one foot in the '60s and the other in the experimental now, Mistakes Pt. 1 is a very real and unaffected vocal presentation surrounded by some fresh and unusual sounds there's even a cheese grater and a heater grill! The Simon & Garfunkel-like “Details” has an angelic jangly guitar and clever words, while “The Long Haul” features some great slide guitar work.
The disc has elements of Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan, Tom Waitts and Coldplay, while Lee's deep baritone evokes Johnny Cash. Perhaps most impressive is that the lyrics are both intelligent and poignant, politically and emotionally fueled without being overstated. “Buy the Way” comments on American greed and asks “who how where what when why am I…” while in “Tomorrow's A Sickness” Lee cleverly states “…it's a pretty pretty pretty ugly world.” “The Truth Unties” is another gem, closing the CD with Lee's sweet hypnotic guitar groove upon which Mitchell layers additional instruments into a climactic chorus of trumpets and a vocal choir.
With Lee and Mitchell at the nucleus, live shows range from a sparse duo to a full-bodied five-piece band. Lee's striking stage presence and the band member’s obvious rapport with one another creates a highly engaging performance.
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