Here's what the press is saying about "Pluck"

Happy Magazine

This CD is the pick of the month. I know I said a lot of mean things about the last band. I feel bad about that(not really) at least about the part where I said all the CD¹s this month sucked. I got this CD from my friend Tom in Newport. I was afraid to listen to it because we both surf the same spot in Newps, and my reviews can be critical from time to time. It can lead to some uncomfortable situations. To my surprise I really like this CD. It¹s nothing personal against Tom (my friend who gave me this CD) but 98% of the CD's I get suck. CanBe reminds me of the Shins and Supergrass. The songs are great. The vocals have Beach Boys and David Bowie type harmonies and song structure. The music is great. I would also compare it to some of Ray Barbee¹s music. This is definitely a rock record, but there is some cool jazz type stuff on here as well. The lyrics are great. Check out the song "Soccer Mom" anyone that rhymes diatom with soccer mom is a genius. I didn't want to take this disc out of my CD player to do the rest of the reviews, and believe me that rarely happens. Cheers Tom! You can check them out at canbemusic.com.

-- Scott Duff


Big O Magazine

Fans of The High Llamas who love the Beach Boys can now find another dreamy abstract hybrid pop band in CanBe, but this time fueled by punk. Self-released and mysterious, CanBe is CanBe, even if all the other musicians are listed. Sad Beautiful is a punk-pop song that drives on with smart lyrics. Anhedonia makes you think of the High Llamas drunk on the Beach Boys: "Emotion is just an pneumonia, there's no cure for anhedonia/ She can't believe it all turned out like this, you concur". CanBe's vocalist can be a little monotonous but they make up for it with deadsure lyrics and lovely pop tunes. But the master work is Rearrange Me, a long wistful lament that has a haunting melody and lyrics that show why CanBe can be more well-known: "I said to myself I might need to get out of this place/I'm losing myself not to mention the whole human race/ what price would you pay to be free/ This world doesn't change so I guess I'll just rearrange me/ I'm not sure that I came prepared to change all that I said/ There's no choice involved here 'cause soon enough we'll all be dead." It's as gently apocalyptic as CanBe. (6.5)

-- Philip Cheah


Smother.net

Pseudo-psychedelic rockers CanBe are partial to recalling Beach Boys surf rock while noodling in indie rock and New Wave. "Pluck" is one damn fantastic album that could easily intimidate those who haven’t heard truly original and creative music in this day and age where it’s more important how much bling you’re showing off and who you’re sleeping with. Heck, you might even be familiar with CanBe already with past work in bands Burnt Party Host, Just Plain Big (including their critically acclaimed "Pets Sound" album), and The Sun. CanBe has composed music for independent film soundtracks as well including "Girl Cottage", "Bowlin’", "Fast Fiction", and "The Post-Graduate". Pick up "Pluck" and sit back and listen to something new and fresh.

-- J-Sin


indie-music.com

Any group that lists a credit on the sleeve thanking someone for astrological assistance is sure to raise a few eyebrows. CanBe are a group of good-natured, college educated acoustic-guitar strummers and knob-twiddlers taking lessons from both REM and Brian Eno, with some nice 70s synth textures thrown in for good measure. From the pretty strains of the opening track to the lush textures of "Brave New 3rd World," this is a hard disc to pin down. Seventeen tracks make this a lot to wade thru, but there’s much to savor on Pluck. "Randy-The King" shows off their love of the slow groove, "Post-Graduate Theme" is short and sweet, and "Soccer Mom" throws in a little social commentary.
Pluck’s arrangements make these songs work well, never succumbing to the temptation to merely repeat verse-chorus-verse. These songs are complex and well produced. The electric guitar that shows up later in the album never overwhelms the rest of the band, and most of the lyrics are easy to hear.
CanBe are not newcomers -- according to their press materials, they showed up in a different incarnation as Just Plain Big on Caroline Records, which might explain the oddball textures and attention to detail in the production room. Of course, the same press release also claims the group recently finished recording a jingle for a condom company in India, so it’s difficult to tell where the truth ends and the put-on begins. For some reason, the band doesn’t seem to have confidence in the individual tracks. "Pick a couple of songs at random," the press release says, "we’re not prepared to decide what you ought to like."
Still, it’s not bad advice, considering how consistently enjoyable this release can be all the way through.

--J. Wallace


rocknworld.com

If the '60's ever spawned a bastard child, then CanBe is its evil twin. Floating acoustic guitars over Beach Boys era keyboard intermingles with a hint of jazz bass-and-drum thrown in over dreamy ballad-esque atmospherics and "I-can't-sing-but-I'll-belt-this-out-anyway" vocals. The sound is at first almost dated, and comes across as something that a frustrated producer buried in the floorboards of a vacant shutdown music studio for forty years, only to resurrect it and release it for a new Austin Powers movie soundtrack. However, the more you get into, the more crusty, crunchy layers you peel back, exposing an almost beach-punk foundation. CanBe is not for the obscure-o-phobic, nor any who loathe the sound of the '60's and '70's. Uninitiated indie rockers need not apply. Hey, was that a penny whistle I just heard?

--Eric Bodrero


musicmania.com

After Canbemusic rejected what was to be his debut album for the new Hapless Pedestrian subsidiary, Canbe re-entered the studio to begin work on what would become a largely different set of songs. The results signal a creative rebirth, a return to the beautiful harmonies and orchestral productions of his classic mid-'80s material. Though there may be nothing as immediately chart-destined as "North County Girls" or "A Ride," the songwriting on Pluck is at once familiar and risky. The disc doesn't so much flow as it pours, moistening the listener in a bracing yet fully synthetic blanket of melody. Many of the tracks -- including "Brainstall," "Brave New Third World," "Randy" and "Anhedonia" -- are virtual travelogues of the soul; themes that would seem trite in the hands of a lesser talent are allowed to unfold at their own pace with Canbe at the helm, like the unfurling of the mainsail on a ship headed straight for the heart. The quasi-mystical "Sad Beautiful" is a deeply personal memoir of love lost, found, then lost again, then found again, as Canbe echoes the Black Eyed Peas in exhorting optimistically: "There's no use in feeling bad, let's start the party instead!" It works not just because we want it to, but because we need it to. But the centerpiece of the album is indisputably the cycle represented by "Rearrange Me," "The Right Thing" and "Soccer Mom," a triumverative suite of songs of forgiveness, hope and the politics of passion. Throughout, the musicianship is typically first-rate, with Canbe's original take on acoustic and electric guitar, bass, piano, organ, and tympani, all anchored by the omnipresent accordion, with drumming chores handled by longtime collaborator and Native American activist Chief. And the arrangements, tight and inventive, make Pluck a remarkably cohesive album, something not seen from Canbe since Burnt Party Host's 1989 swan song, the guitar-heavy My Three Thongs double LP. But where that record was brimming with premillennium tension (aptly reflecting the mood of a band on the verge of a now well-documented disintegration), this is warm, relaxed, and sunny. Pluck is a stunning artistic breakthrough, and a dramatic triumph for one of Rock's iconic apologists.

--Brook Koontz