Bag of Toys' newest album, "Afternooner, " inspires some bobbing of the head. It even feels good to listen to, provided you're not paying it exclusive attention.
As the band's sophomore release, the album progresses both lyrically and stylistically from their debut album, "Nooner," and gets a studio facelift, but it doesn't move on to cover anything groundbreaking.
The songs use some decently vivid imagery to cover days spent at the beach, listening to Sublime, and the way singer/songwriter Robert Tait gets his head right. The way the imagery recurs goes along with Bag of Toys' self-described style of music that's "good to drink to."
"(We sing about) living in the moment, having a good time while you can," said bassist Joe Schewe, a Livonia, Mich. native and MSU packaging alumnus.
After graduating in 1999, Schewe moved a couple of times before ending up in San Francisco for a job. He played in a Top-40 cover band for awhile to stay involved in music, but went on Craigslist.com to look for something more original.
There he found Tait, who had written songs and was looking for musicians to help bring them to life. Those songs comprised the band's first release, "Nooner," in 2006.
As opposed to "Nooner," where almost everything was written to accommodate Tait's material, "Afternooner" was more of a collaborative effort, Schewe said.
"Starting from scratch, all of us had input on every single note," he said, adding he wrote a tune himself.
A bit more length or changeup to solos would add a lot to Bag of Toys' formulaic style, and I would appreciate more originality on their part. The note progressions are predictable, which make them sound soothing, but won't do much to sustain your interest.
Bag of Toys' work is most comparable to that of Jack Johnson, mostly in the sense that both music makers lack chord variety from time to time.
Their sunnily simplistic outlook probably stems from the way it feels to escape work for a minute to really live. Schewe joked that the guys enjoy playing with Bag more than work would want them to: All of the band members have full-time jobs, he said.
I wouldn't complain if I heard "Afternooner" playing somewhere, maybe on some faux-rock speakers outside - especially if I had a margarita in my hand and the wind in my hair - but it's also not a record I'd run out and tell my friends to buy.
But then again, I'm into lyrical complexity and cutting-edge innovation.