Since forming in 1996, Milwaukee’s Trolley has kept the best elements of ’60s pop rock alive through recording a succession of great original songs. Trolley’s focus is often on that decade’s greatest musical year, 1966, when pop wore psychedelic colors and stretched at the boundaries without snapping them, keeping ambition within the concise boundaries of three-minute songs.
Laying low since the release of Things that Shine and Glow (2011), Trolley devoted the past two years to recording their new album, Caught In The Darkness. Although the music is resolutely 20th century, it was recorded with 21st-century technology. “I revamped my studio into a ProTools set up,” guitarist-vocalist Mike Perotto says. “I built a computer workstation from scratch. Digital recording has come a long way. Our last album was done on eight-track tape—we had to be frugal with what we recorded. Now the danger is recording too much! When it became too dense, we’d have to subtract—strip it back down.”
Among the assets of the new technology are plug-ins that allowed Trolley to replicate the sounds of unavailable vintage instruments such as Wurlitzer and Farfisa organs and Mellotron. The freedom to pull from so many sources has broadened the scope of Trolley’s sound. The new album’s title number suggests The Ramones—if punk rock had held on to the cold orchestral grandeur of that ’60s instrument, the Mellotron. “She Helps Me Celebrate” is reminiscent of a rousing new-wave tune, a lost hit from MTV’s early months.
“Caught In The Darkness is more muscular than the last record,” says guitarist-vocalist Paul Wall. “The songs are more rocking. We have definitely embraced the ’80s more than we would have 20 years ago. Back then, we were trying to reject the ’80s.”
According to Perotto, the Mellotron plug-in used on Caught In The Darkness was sampled from Abbey Road studio’s Mellotron; likewise, the harmonium plug-in derives from the instrument heard on The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out.” Little wonder that the closing track on the new Trolley disc, “Take My Love,” waxes Baroque like a lost track from that greatest of albums from 1966, The Beatles’ Revolver.
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As usual, many of the songs written by Perotto, Wall and bassist Terry Hackbarth delve into the romance of desperation, loss and anxiety. “Our skill at arranging songs is what has evolved the most,” Hackbarth says.
Maybe so, but like all of its predecessors, Caught In The Darkness flows well from track to track, building toward a sum larger than its parts—just like great albums from the 20th century.
Trolley’s CD release party takes place Saturday, Dec. 5 at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, 1001 E. Locust St. Liv Mueller and The Great Lake Drifters will open the show.
