Already Told You:Geoff Farina

Artist: Geoff Farina

Date Released: 2005

Label: Southern

Produced By:

Tracklisting:
 * 1) Femmes Damnees
 * 2) Already Told You
 * 3) Molasses to Rum
 * 4) Kin of Carbons

Review: When you think of indie-rock’s premier singer/songwriters names like Elliott Smith and Ted Leo immediately come to mind, but most of the time Geoff Farina seems to go by unnoticed. Most notably known for his jazz influenced indie-rock group Karate along with the Secret Stars, his more folk-based collaboration with Jodi Buonanno, Farina has been active in the independent music scene throughout the last 15 years (mostly working with Chicago’s Southern Records). His solo efforts have been a comfortable cross between the groups, a somewhat romantic pairing of Farina’s unobtrusive voice and his loosely played electric guitar. ‘Already Told You,’ his second release of 2005 (the other being an instrumental record called New Salt (Xeng) recorded with Luther Gray of Tsunami and Dan Littleton of Ida) is a very concise 4 song EP reminiscing of 2001’s Reverse Eclipse. Each of the songs is intimate and sparse with Farina’s semi-abstract songwriting being the point of concentration. His electric guitar playing, and the occasional bass line, frames each song, but in a purposely forgettable way, as if almost an afterthought. The EP kicks of with the quiet and quaint Femmes Damnees, which strangely enough is the most confrontational song on the disc. During the title track, whose initial guitar riff is awkwardly similar to Stairway to Heaven, Farina seems most at home as he sings about the difficulty of putting emotions down on paper. Molasses to Rum is a bit brighter musically, and Kin of Carbons welcomingly adds another guitar line that really accentuates the sparseness of the previous tracks. ‘Already Told You’ may be overlooked for its conciseness, but it will be a welcomed release to any Farina fan. Mpardaiolo