MIDWESTBANDS.COM, June, 2003

I admire musicians who are “ambidextrous”; that is, musicians who are able to play a number of instruments.  I dabbled with all kinds of instruments until I settled on bass guitar.  Even when I was playing bass, I was a frustrated guitar player, drummer and keyboard player.  When I had the free time, I would noodle around on different instruments, hoping to gain at least some proficiency with each, but winding up irritated because I couldn’t pick it up right away.  With bass, I just seemed to fall into it.  It’s funny; I should have seen that right away, because in high school band I naturally gravitated away from playing alto saxophone to playing baritone, where I was “holding down the bottom end” so to speak.

Tony Pica is an ambidextrous musician!  As such, I admire him, and I’m even a little jealous!  He has used his talent, not only as a great musician, but also as a very talented songwriter, to produce a great album called Soul Occupation.  To me, it seems like it has to take a lot of fortitude to believe in yourself enough to follow a project like this one through to completion!  And, this isn’t a home-spun project!   Tony did this CD in a professional studio, with real musicians and everything!  For those facts alone, this CD deserves a listen.   But, the real reason that you should listen to this CD is that it’s just a very good CD!

According to his bio, Tony was schooled in the music scenes of Chicago and Detroit.  It makes sense, I suppose, then, that he has settled in Southwest Michigan.  It also makes sense that the “flavor” of his music shows influence from these cities, as well as several genres.  There is also a huge Steely Dan influence in his music.  In fact, the majority of the tunes on this CD seem to pay homage to the popular band of the 1970’s.  And, that would make sense!  Fagen and Becker were primarily songwriters, who used the band as a vehicle to showcase their songs.  This formula seems to work very well for Pica as well.  His songs display great songwriting ability.  At times, the instrumentation is a little flimsy, but the songs themselves are good songs!

There is also a Dylanesque sound on some of the tracks on this album.  Actually, Tony’s voice can sound a lot like Jacob Dylan’s voice!  My favorite track on the CD is a track entitled “Untitled”; that song sounds very much like a Wallflowers/Bob Dylan tune.  Even the lyrics seem to be written by Dylan himself!  “Now in haste they change the pace like water over rails, and the cautious moves and raucous crews of a freighter without sails, while messengers are reciting words they know they dare not to repeat, lavished in their praise of days they know now went down in defeat. If it's past I hope you last and will be here to report, on all those fears that you've held for years and find hard now not to extort, but ecstasy never came easy, not in a lifetime, or in vain, now they're gone I hope they're where they belong both in spirit as well as in name. “

“Sun, Moon, Earth and Sky” is another song that follows that pattern.  Most of the other songs on the CD, though, show the Steely Dan influence.  My favorite top five songs after “Untitled” are “Every Grain of Sand”, “Midnight Listenin’ to the Saxophone”, “Flippin’ Through the USA”,  “She’s Got a Lot to Offer”, and “Wiseman”.  Honestly, I find things in each song that I really enjoy!  Two songs that really aren’t my favorites on the CD are the title track “Soul Occupation”, and “Downtown”.  In each of these songs, there is a meandering guitar line that somehow strikes me wrong.  I’m not sure if it’s the tone of the guitar, or if it’s the actual progression of notes, but it just doesn’t work for me.  The songs are solid, though, and they both display good songwriting skills!

I have to admit, that these were the first two tunes that I heard from the CD; it’s not a fair reaction, but I initially could not see past the guitar lines that were bugging me, and this produced an initial feeling of dread.  However, that dread soon turned to delight as I heard music that was pleasing to my ear.  I very nearly became guilty of judging the entire CD by two tracks.  I am very glad that Tony “won me over” with great songwriting and talent displayed in great supply.

This album is a great showcase for the talent of Tony Pica.  I don’t know if Tony plays live much; I don’t know that it would be necessary for him to do so, after listening to Soul Occupation, because his main strength is his songwriting!  I can understand that he might want to play live; after all, part of the joy of being a musician is seeing the reaction of people to the sound that you are able to create.  Tony is a more than capable musician, and would be able to create a great live show!    I would hope, though, that the word of mouth advertising from people who listen to this CD would preclude the need to perform live for the sake of helping to sell CDs.   Buy a copy, and then spread the word!  This one is deserving of a prominent place in your collection!—Mark Lush, MidwestBands.com, 6/6/03 *Side note: “Soul Occupation” is one of Jenny Lush’s favorite tunes on the CD and it and many others of Tony’s songs can be heard on MWB RADIO!