THE MAKERS

REVIEWS OF THE LATEST MAKERS CD "EVERYBODY RISE!"
SPLENDID written by Philip Stone
Time will tell, but it appears The Makers are destined to be one of those bands that more famous, commercially successful artists point to as the thankless trailblazers who made everything possible. Like Stiff Little Fingers or The Mr. T Experience's relationship with Green Day, The Makers join a handful of mid '90s garage bands that sowed fertile ground for The White Stripes, The Hives and a host of other blues/garage rock revivalists. It's unlikely that The Makers expect anyone to feel sorry for them, but it should be noted that Everybody Rise is not the effort of a flash in the pan trendhopper -- it's yet another solid outing from one of the most prolific, reliable and enduring rock bands of the last ten years. Fans who know The Makers from their Estrus Records days might be surprised by Everybody Rise!'s glossiness. Gone are the frenzied lo-fi blasts from Howl! and Hunger; this is a more mature version of that band. They still pump their songs full of sex, pomp and guitar solos, but now they're doing it with a little technical proficiency. The most interesting revelation is the rich vocal harmony work that found its way into the music, so much so that even producer Jack Endino referred to the project as "Pet Sounds on a budget." It's an unfair comparison, but for anyone who's heard Mike Maker's snotty scream from the band's self-titled album, it might be a shock to hear his crystal clear voice in tune and in perfect harmony with brother Donny.That said, if there was ever any doubt, Mike Maker is a natural born rock star. His ability to melt his voice into any musical setting is practically unmatched. He and his band have covered a lot of musical ground from their lo-fi days to the glam era of Rock Star God, and on Everybody Rise! they revisit the entire catalog of genres. Opener "Matter of Degrees" comes closest to Hunger's manic intensity, while still successfully setting the new mood with rich vocal layering. "Run with Me Tonight" is a brilliant acoustic guitar and piano (piano?!) ballad that would make The Redwalls turns green with envy. How about "Ordinary Human Love"'s falsetto sex groove? It's still well within their range and fits the album's feverish sexual energy. Any curveball that bass player and primary songwriter Don Virgo throws at the band, these vets knock out of the park.If ever there was any merit to the notion that you can't be in your thirties and still rock, Everybody Rise! puts it to rest. Sure, it's not as fast as the twenty-something Makers were, but it's sharper, smarter, sexier and much more interesting.
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE written by Tom Wright
Before garage punk became acceptable enough to be championed by proselytes like Little Steven's underground garage radio empire, MTV and the general masses, The Makers blazed a fulgent trail back in 1991. To this day, few have matched it. Not content to stay stuck in the garage with the rest of the pack, the Spokane, Wash., quintet wisely took the risky leap of recording the concept album "Rock Star God, " in 1999. This marked a crossover into a more refined classic rock sound, but it was galvanized by spicy elements of glam, punk and cabaret. It superbly showcases the band's finest songwriting and musicianship to date, while the group's ballad-heavy follow-up, "Strangest Parade" lacked the previous record's variety, immediacy and conceptual innovation. But four years have passed and the band has a new look and sound in guitarist Tim 'Maker' Killingsworth and drummer Aaron Saye. Hearing their appropriately titled eighth album, "Everybody Rise!," the listener will get a healthy mix of their past snotty punk aggression and their more euphonious, sophisticated songcraft. Like a shot out of a cannon, "Matter of Degrees" pounds out a feral, fuzzy frisson informed by punk prototypes the Stooges and MC5."Good as Gold" exhibits an '80s new wave vibe and echoes the Fixx, Vibrators and Stiff Little Fingers. Replete with it's nonsyllabic bah bah bahs, "Run With Me Tonight" is pure infectious pop in the vein of the Small Faces and Association, while Michael Maker's irresistibly affected vocalizing infuses the title track with a tone that's a cross between Donovan and the White Stripes. "It Takes A Mighty Heart" cuts a maximum R&B soul groove that effectively incorporates Wilson Pickett's "Midnight Hour" swagger with the signature riff of Booker T and the MG's/Otis Redding's 'Can't Turn Loose." Capturing the suggestive sentiment expressed on "Sex is Evil (When Love Is Dead)," the band combines the Doors' haunting, nocturnal keyboard sound and waltz tempo with an ominous croon from former Misfits' Glen Danzig. "Ordinary Human Love," the epic melodramatic closer "Promises For Tomorrow" and "The Story Of You And I" sound like ballads the Rolling Stones (think Mick Jagger's falsetto in "Beast of Burden") and the Faces might have laid down, respectively. And "Tiger of the Night" and "She Walks In Color" fuse traces of vintage Jethro Tull guitar riffs with the formidable menace of early Blue Oyster Cult. Like some of the best, The Makers are "working the room," embracing and incorporating more influences than ever before and putting them to decidedly good use. Once again, they're expanding their musical horizons and defying all expectations.
ALLMUSIC.COM written by John D. Luerssen
On their second album for Kill Rock Stars, the Makers glue their patented, dirty Spokane garage roar to a glammy, attitudinal approach with splendid results. Produced with the golden touch of board man Jack Endino, Everybody Rise! is an inspirational rock & roll album. Fist-pumping power oozes out of "Matter of Degrees," while "Good as Gold" is all basement blister. However, a new secret weapon emerges on these tracks in the form of the superb harmony vocals of Mike Maker and his brother Don Maker. The falsetto-steered "Ordinary Human Love," and the piano-plunked sweetness that is "Run with Me Tonight" skillfully show the softer side of the Makers. In doing so, these Washington State-bred cats confirm there is little they cannot or will not accomplish in their quest to get folks to dance to rock music again. As one of the most dependable and determined American outfits working in 2005, Everybody Rise! is the soundtrack of their ascent.
AVERSION written by Matt Schild
Every music fan and rock critic has his or her favorite genres, most beloved styles and axes to grind and personal annoyances, so much so that rock’n’roll culture is a war of words and styles almost as much as it’s a kind of music. It’s time for that to change, declare The Makers.The Pacific Northwest’s rowdiest rockers return on Everybody Rise, the act’s tenth album in 11 years, and this time, it’s nothing but classic, capital-R rock. The erstwhile garage punks struck out from the shelter of their faithful garage a few years ago and dallied with a few concept albums on Sub Pop (2000’s Rock Star God and ’02’s Strangest Parade), then revamped the sweaty stompers from their back catalog on Stripped, but this time around, there’s no distractions from the obvious: The Makers are here to rock you.And rock you they do. With the sort of greasy guitars and slinky rock’n’roll posturing that’s as much Kiss as it is The Rolling Stones or The Who, the tracks on Everybody Rise could sneak into a variety of radio formats – classic rock, alt-rock and college radio, most obviously – without putting bumps in the play list. While that sort of versatility seems unlikely in a world where there are about 900 documented flavors of punk rock and a seemingly endless categoration tree for pop acts, Everybody Rise dusts off the notion of back-to-basics, all-encompassing rock. Better still, it doesn’t resort to the mediocrity of Coldplay and U2’s newrenea nonsense to do it.Strip out all the excess baggage and you can still raise the roof Everybody Rise demonstrates. Of course, The Makers make good with in-the-red guitars and fierce guitars, as “Matter of Degrees” and “She Walks in Color” invoke everything from ’70s hard rock to garage nostalgia, but invigorate them with a Makers twist. The band shows its songwriting prowess like never before on Everybody Rise, as it dabbles in acoustic sing-along pop (“Run With Me Tonight”), a low-lit bluesy ballad (“Ordinary Human Love”) and darn catchy guitar pop, albeit with the band’s snarling guitars at its center (“The Story of You and I”).Distilling nearly everything The Makers’ recent years strove to find, Everybody Rise won’t surprise any long-time Makers fans, but it delivers the album that true believers have always known was in them. Keep your hip sub-genres, your over-classified analysis and hipster pretense. Rock is back where it belongs, safe in The Makers’ hands. ****
HIGH BIAS written by Michael Toland
To a lot of rock & roll fans, the ability to play a simplified, dirty style of guitar-based rock that prides itself on its energy, aggression and basic song structures, AKA "garage rock," equals authenticity. If you can slam out power chords (using only your high volume for distortion), scream like you're pissed at every person you've ever met and make 4/4 time jump like a barefoot toddler on a hot sidewalk, you're enshrined in the underground pantheon. Unfortunately, being good at garage rock can also become a trap; it's a limited form for any ambitious musician, yet the fans cry "treason" at any overt attempt to alter the formula. (Subtle stylistic changes are usually rewarded, however. There's a lesson in there somewhere, but I'm not going to bother to find it.) Plenty of bands step over the garage punk line only to be vilified.So what's an artist to do when he or she wants to expand beyond three chords and elementary riffs? In the case of the Makers, the group simply plowed forward and assumed its audience would catch up. After establishing themselves with several records as the Northwest's heirs to the violent heritage of the Sonics, the Seattle band abruptly changed direction, putting its slashing guitars and snarling vocals to the service of glam rock dynamics and well-crafted melodies. The albums Psychopathia Sexualis, Rock Star God and Strangest Parade garnered a seemingly equal number of detractors and adherents, with the former unwilling to follow the band down a path dictated by ever-evolving songwriting and creative ambition. Too bad for them, though at least they had Stripped, the band's 2004 final goodbye to its garage rock years.If the Makers' lost followers hated Strangest Parade, they're going to be apoplectic when they hear Everybody Rise! For its eleventh record, the quintet has added the element it's been hinting at for the last five years or so: pop. On this album the melodies are stronger, the arrangements more varied and the performances more carefully crafted than ever before. For example, "Run With Me Tonight" bounces along at a breezy lope, augmenting its hooks with a rousing series of "bah-bah-bah-bahs" in its refrain. "The Story of You and I" shifts to folk rock, its catchy melody and heartfelt performance keeping blandness far, far away. "Ordinary Human Love" is an exquisitely crafted pop ballad, led by piano and frontperson Michael Maker's superb falsetto; "Promises For Tomorrow" adopts a similar tone, almost becoming a power ballad. "She Walks in Color" adds an element of menacing Goth rock to its minor-key psychedelia. The title track's tough power pop boasts a singalong chorus that practically demands audience participation.To be sure, the Makers have not abandoned its earlier high energy approach. The hard rock gem "Tiger of the Night" and the riff-rocking "Good as Gold" and "Matter of Degrees" fry amplifiers and synapses like the blazing anthems of yore. What makes these seeming throwbacks even more amazing, however, is how well they fit into the rest of the record. Though the Makers explore their talent in a variety of stylistic manners here, they never come off as eclectic for eclecticism's sake—the album's flow is completely organic. Everybody Rise! reaches a giddy summit in the band's career, proving once and for all that the Makers are one of America's best rock & roll acts, genre considerations be buggered.
DRASTIC PLASTIC PRESS written by Craig Campbell
Everybody Rise! is a tight fuzzy wallop of a record from a truly classic rock 'n roll band. Timothy Killingsworth, the guitarist on the earliest Makers' records is back in the fold and the band seems to be out for blood on this one. the Makers try on some new hats but all within the realm of total ROCK. I heard a range of influences on this record, from trippy David Bowie vocals to Rolling Stonesey ballads. Song 10, "She Walks in Color," sounds like Bowie singing with the Pixies, it's my favorite cut. Everybody Rise! is more polished than previous albums; complex song structures and harmonies accompany the branded Makers garage attack. There is so much creativity, energy and enthusiasm here. Support this band and this record and as far as I know, the Makers will rock us into the next decade.
DISCORDER written by Bryce Dunn
Greetings brethren and sistern, gather round as we celebrate the glory of rock and roll from the depths of the soul, The Makers! Rejoice and revel in the new supersonic sound assaulting your senses, bigger and bolder than ever! The sound of sex, power and wisdom awaits you! Welcome with open arms the rebirth of Timothy Killingsworth, a Maker once more! Behold the majesty of Aaron Saye, drummer of unmerciful power! Marvel at the guitar prowess of Jamie Frost and the mystery of Don Virgo, as he conjures sounds that only the lower depths could create! Can I get an amen? Run with me tonight, my children, the tiger of the night, Michael Maker, is awake and hungry and hunting for ordinary human love! We can give it to him, just believe and you’re as good as gold! Hallelujah! Now everyone get on your feet, ’cuz I know you can take the heat, and feel the thorn in your side being pulled out, crushed under those Cuban heels and let the music take control! It’s just a matter of degrees! Everybody rise! Everybody rise! The Makers are here! You’ve been saved, yes you’ve been saved...
babysue.com written by LMNOP
Prior to hearing this disc, we were already big fans of The Makers. It seems particularly fitting that the band has now found themselves on the Kill Rock Stars roster. Hailing from Spokane, Washington, The Makers' music has somehow unfortunately eluded most folks. This could be simply due to the fact that this band aren't into dumb gimmicks or selling themselves for money. Instead, The Makers simply play rip-roaring great rock without unnecessary frills. This band plays with the same focused fury that made Redd Kross such a favorite here in babysueland in the 1990s. All the necessary elements are here: great tunes, throbbing rhythms, infectious guitars, and gripping vocals. Everybody Rise! features the return of original member Timothy Killingsworth and new drummer Aaron Saye. This album is not a collection of sloppy underground rock crappers. It is, instead, a collection of new rock classics for thinking individuals who like their music played stylishly fresh and loud. This unique disc contains eleven satisfying cuts including "Matter of Degrees," "Everybody Rise," "Ordinary Human Love," and "She Walks in Color." Refreshingly genuine. Rating: 5++
MUNDANE SOUNDS written by Joseph Kyle
The Makers have been making garage-rock since well before The Strokes had pubes, and they’ve been doing it quite well for almost as long. That they’ve been a bit of a secret for the few who know their name isn’t their fault; the world just hasn’t been ready for them. Sure, music trends have come and gone, but the Makers have remained rock-solid firm in their commitment to the principles of making quality rock and roll music. Fifteen years in, they’ve yet to make a disappointing record. That their latest album Everybody Rise! may very well be their masterpiece is saying a lot, as their previous album, 2002’s Strangest Parade, was damn near perfect. Though there’s been a bit of a lineup change (veteran guitarist Tim Maker is back in the band, and they have a new drummer, Aaron), it doesn’t really affect the band’s music at all; the new line up is extremely tight, and from the first moments of Everybody Rise!, it’s instantly apparent that The Makers are back, baby. And damn, they’ve delivered some of the best rock music 2005’s seen so far. From the joyous blues-rock punch of “Matter of Degrees” and the sly “Good as Gold” to the beautiful ballad “Ordinary Human Love,” The Makers cover every possible emotion. They get sexy (“Tiger of the Night”) but then they turn around and get rather tender (“Run with Me Tonight”) and they do so with natural grace and ease. Though they still have a sound that’s rough and rocky and reminiscent of the first decade of the Jagger/Richards collaboration, the fifteen-year-old Makers still sound better than the forty-five year old Rolling Stones. Special love should be given to “The Story of You & I,” though, because it’s a song that has so much magic. With a Hammond organ riff that’s totally stolen from Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” Michael Maker has composed a beautiful, beautiful love song. It’s about falling in love and not getting the love back you deserve, but it’s also a rather positive message: I love you, even though you totally broke my heart, but the feeling of love is greater than your cheatin’ heart. This song is so wonderful, it deserves to be pressed up on a seven inch and shipped to all the hip jukeboxes of the world, then it needs to make an appearance on The OC, and even though such things are kind of mainstream and lame, The Makers deserve the opportunity to show you how much they rule. Everybody Rise! is simply a damn good rock record. No more, no less.
MISH MASH
Can you imagine a combination of The Rolling Stones, T. Rex, The New York Dolls, The Stooges, and a heaping helping of Guns N Roses? In other words, a perfect intersection of rock, punk and glam? Enter The Makers. They've taken all the threads of the past 30 years and tied them up into one central knot. The songs are tight, the guitars are hot, and the vocals are delivered with the perfect combination of sneer and snarl. The album begins with the undeniable driving force of Matter Of Degrees, burning with a classic big riff and plenty of dueling guitars. From there, they drop right into the dark and brooding power pop of Good As Gold, featuring a fist-pumping chorus hook that would make Hanoi Rocks green with envy. As the disc progresses, the band spreads its figurative musical wings and experiments with acoustic rock, roots rock, and straight up high-heeled glam. They aren't afraid of taking a few chances, yet they're all the while keeping the sound solidly in their rock-n-roll foundation.
THE INLANDER written by Mike Corrigan
The Makers Everybody Rise! **** Pete Townshend was right: The music must change. And no one knows that better than a band that's been around for more than a handful of years. If for no other reason, the Makers get props for successfully finding a way out of one of rock's most infamous dead-ends (garage) and for never pandering to the expectations of their audience. Everybody Rise (their first for Kill Rock Stars) is another evolutionary step forward — and it's surprising how big a step it is. Repeated listenings will tell, but from here, this sounds like the band's most confident, soulful and unselfconsciously fun album to date. The songs are here, too ("Good As Gold" and the Mersey Beat "Run With Me Tonight" are only the beginning). The ferocious opener, "Matter of Degrees," serves notice that this Northwest rock fortress is stronger than ever. It also sets up the album's running theme: self-empowerment. When singer Michael Maker implores, "Everyone get on your feet / 'Cause I know you can take the heat," you can't help but want to join the movement.
KEXP.ORG written by Lisa Wood
My, my, my, this band is back with a vengeance! This album ROCKS. Straight up folks. Rock and Roll. They talk about being from Spokane in their interviews and how with nothing else to do in Spokane, this is what happens. Awesome. I suppose I'm glad Spokane lacks whatever it is that made these guys form such a great freakin' band!
Jack Endino, producer (Nirvana, Hot Hot Heat)
This one's a monster. You'll see. Pet Sounds on a budget is how I kept jokingly referring to it. The Makers have raised the bar mightily. I shit you not.