Casually Smashed to Pieces

Kent, Ohio's the Six Parts Seven have been making the same record for their entire career. Lucky for them, it's a good one. The group's unwavering devotion to the idea of interlocking guitar melodies, a throbbing metronomic bass and drum and the inevitable addition of a surprise guest (on Casually Smashed to Pieces they include clarinet, lap steel, Rhodes piano and cornet) is an admirable one. The Six Parts Seven are musical comfort food, plain and simple. A group that you go to when you want to induce or prolong a certain emotion. And like Erik Satie before them, it's music that may just be more practical than anything in your record collection. Go ahead: what else were you going to clean your room to?