Thornton

"The title tune to Thornton’s disc is emblematic of the whole collection—highly personal, cryptic lyric meditations backed by droning guitar and/or keyboards. Fascinating individualism."
- Music Row Magazine

Characteristically, three-piece bands are a heavy-handed lot. That's not the case with Thornton, a local trio who avoid rock formula with the ardor of experimental standard-bearers like Pere Ubu and Laurie Anderson. That said, there's nothing dissonant or theatrical about Thornton's debut album, Had a Sword, a record that underplays practically everything—except, perhaps, frontman Kevin Thornton's sexual ambiguity. Like those of Morrissey, who is an obvious influence, Thornton's piqued lyrics jab at sexual convention and romantic equality. "With good behavior, one gets to pass / Then right across the ass comes the helping hand," he sings on the gauzy "My Teacher." Musically, Thornton avoid hyperbole. Arrangements are stripped down to the essentials: tinkling piano, unpretentious guitar and muted percussion. Despite this subdued approach, there is a grandeur to their album that's owed, in part, to its dependence on the Baptist Hymnal. Strange as it might sound, the melodies of songs like "Live in This World" (a hymn to hiding under the covers) and the aforementioned "My Teacher" recall the pentatonic hymnody of rural Southern churches. For those who are sick of musical derivation and sameness, Thornton's incongruities and light-handedness are a saving grace. - Paul Griffith from Nashville Scene

"The title tune to Thornton’s disc is emblematic of the whole collection—highly personal, cryptic lyric meditations backed by droning guitar and/or keyboards. Fascinating individualism."
- Music Row Magazine

If you ask Kevin Thornton, lead singer and songwriter for his band Thornton, he’ll tell you that the “guitar, bass, and drums experiment” is over. The evidence for this is everywhere — bands copying 60’s garage rock, 70’s punk rock, 80’s hair metal, and 90’s grunge. So what does music sound like now? The answer is, it doesn’t matter. Good music in 2003 is about the song and the artistic statement over anything else. Thornton seems to have embraced this wholeheartedly, as their music is at once natural, powerful, affecting, and familiar. They have already mastered their simplistic style, with songs that say just enough and only the instrumentation that is necessary. The unintended effect is that the listener feels like they already know the song the first time they hear it, and the second time they hear it, they can hum along while realizing that something about them has changed from the first time. If comparisons have to be made, one would not be wrong to liken Thornton to Morrissey, Roxy Music and Low, but Kevin’s singing and songwriting are distinctly his own – comforting, yet without inhibition. At his side are Enoch Porch, who sings beautiful harmonies while playing drums, keyboards or both, and Brent Morris, who switches between bass, guitar and piano depending on the song. Essentially, this is one of the most individually talented three-pieces you will see in Nashville. For the past few months the band has been holed up, working on a new full-length to be released independently. The record will be done in the coming weeks and the band will be ready to begin playing out. If you see Thornton’s name in the listings, go see them. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. Consider this advanced warning. - Sensored Magazine

If you ask Kevin Thornton, lead singer and songwriter for his band Thornton, he’ll tell you that the “guitar, bass, and drums experiment” is over. The evidence for this is everywhere — bands copying 60’s garage rock, 70’s punk rock, 80’s hair metal, and 90’s grunge. So what does music sound like now? The answer is, it doesn’t matter. Good music in 2003 is about the song and the artistic statement over anything else. Thornton seems to have embraced this wholeheartedly, as their music is at once natural, powerful, affecting, and familiar. They have already mastered their simplistic style, with songs that say just enough and only the instrumentation that is necessary. The unintended effect is that the listener feels like they already know the song the first time they hear it, and the second time they hear it, they can hum along while realizing that something about them has changed from the first time. If comparisons have to be made, one would not be wrong to liken Thornton to Morrissey, Roxy Music and Low, but Kevin’s singing and songwriting are distinctly his own – comforting, yet without inhibition. At his side are Enoch Porch, who sings beautiful harmonies while playing drums, keyboards or both, and Brent Morris, who switches between bass, guitar and piano depending on the song. Essentially, this is one of the most individually talented three-pieces you will see in Nashville. For the past few months the band has been holed up, working on a new full-length to be released independently. The record will be done in the coming weeks and the band will be ready to begin playing out. If you see Thornton’s name in the listings, go see them. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. Consider this advanced warning. - Sensored Magazine

These days, the rock 'n' roll genre is all about innovation, and with the concentration often being on quantity rather than quality, it's easy for bands to fall into the trap of over-dramatization in their attempts to distinguish themselves. Thornton, however, has a refreshing respect for the past, and the band makes their mark in the local scene with a vintage sound and a contemporary appeal. Vocalist Kevin Thornton has a wealth of experience as a songwriter, and the band's debut album, Had a Sword, is a testament to his talent as both a poet and a performer. Thornton's voice has a rich texture laced with bluesy intonations. Think Jeff Buckley or Morrissey over the atmospheric melodies of a Chicago jazz club. Thornton's music is a blend of past and present. The band has carved its sound out of a myriad of influences resulting in a coolly professional, yet contented, laid-back vibe. Enoch Porch, a gifted drummer and keyboard player, sings harmonies with Kevin, and the band mates' individual talents make Thornton a force to be reckoned with. There are few bands around with such a formidable balance of warranted confidence and veracious spirit. Thornton's unique sound is derived from many influences, including jazz, a little bit of rock and (don't be scared), Baptist hymnals. Now this is where you may take a step back and say, "Wait a second, church music?" Never fear, Thornton's music is far too multi-dimensional to be lumped together with the monotonous, droning rhythms that we usually associate with prayer songs. Had a Sword merely invokes small echoes of hymnal sounds, an example of Thornton's ability to put part of who the band is or how the members were raised into how they make music. Porch and Thornton met while Thornton was stranded in Nashville on his way to New York in 2003. The pair rented a shabby apartment and recorded the tracks in their make-shift studio. The band is finally beginning to enjoy the fruits of their labor, touring the South and Midwest. Their CD has won them a lot of local attention, and their fan base is growing as news of their CD spreads via word of mouth. In fact, Had a Sword recently won Thornton a Nashville Scene Music Award for Best Rock/Experimental. - The Vanderbilt Hustler

These days, the rock 'n' roll genre is all about innovation, and with the concentration often being on quantity rather than quality, it's easy for bands to fall into the trap of over-dramatization in their attempts to distinguish themselves. Thornton, however, has a refreshing respect for the past, and the band makes their mark in the local scene with a vintage sound and a contemporary appeal. Vocalist Kevin Thornton has a wealth of experience as a songwriter, and the band's debut album, Had a Sword, is a testament to his talent as both a poet and a performer. Thornton's voice has a rich texture laced with bluesy intonations. Think Jeff Buckley or Morrissey over the atmospheric melodies of a Chicago jazz club. Thornton's music is a blend of past and present. The band has carved its sound out of a myriad of influences resulting in a coolly professional, yet contented, laid-back vibe. Enoch Porch, a gifted drummer and keyboard player, sings harmonies with Kevin, and the band mates' individual talents make Thornton a force to be reckoned with. There are few bands around with such a formidable balance of warranted confidence and veracious spirit. Thornton's unique sound is derived from many influences, including jazz, a little bit of rock and (don't be scared), Baptist hymnals. Now this is where you may take a step back and say, "Wait a second, church music?" Never fear, Thornton's music is far too multi-dimensional to be lumped together with the monotonous, droning rhythms that we usually associate with prayer songs. Had a Sword merely invokes small echoes of hymnal sounds, an example of Thornton's ability to put part of who the band is or how the members were raised into how they make music. Porch and Thornton met while Thornton was stranded in Nashville on his way to New York in 2003. The pair rented a shabby apartment and recorded the tracks in their make-shift studio. The band is finally beginning to enjoy the fruits of their labor, touring the South and Midwest. Their CD has won them a lot of local attention, and their fan base is growing as news of their CD spreads via word of mouth. In fact, Had a Sword recently won Thornton a Nashville Scene Music Award for Best Rock/Experimental. - The Vanderbilt Hustler

...then there was Thornton, the evening's last and, by far, best band. As they bantered with each other and the crowd before getting started, the black-clad trio's casual professionalism immediately set them off from their counterparts on the bill. During the set, frontman and principal songwriter Kevin Thornton and his bandmate Brenton Morris deftly moved between electric grand piano and Fender guitar, with Morris switching to bass on occasion. Drummer Enoch Porch, who started out the set on musical saw, doubled on vintage synth and sometimes played both instruments simultaneously. Vocally, Kevin Thornton brings to mind Morrissey, but his band's sound is by no means derivative (a crippling issue for the rest of the acts on the bill). Songs like "My Teacher" (from the forthcoming CD, Had a Sword) borrow from cabaret, the Baptist Hymnal and the melancholy rock of, say, Kate Bush or Cocteau Twins. Live, this mix was especially distinctive due to the band's sonic and dynamic range, which is greater than what most rock trios are capable of. Add to this Thornton's smirking, dark appeal, and you have an artistic vision that's not only creatively relevant but also, one hopes, commercially viable. - Nashville Scene

Like the character von Ashenbach in Thomas Mann's novella Death in Venice, Kevin Thornton is between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, Thornton—who heads the Nashville experimental rock band that bears his name—is the product of a Southern Baptist upbringing, and that tradition's emphasis on discipline, regularity and form show up in his music. On the other, Thornton's work indicates a predilection for the sensual and the chaotic, an emotional intensity that runs contrary to his conservative beginnings. As Ashenbach—a burned-out writer who is obsessed with a gorgeous young boy—learns, the urge for form and the urge for chaos are not unrelated: in the quest for formal beauty, the best-intentioned artists are led toward what Mann calls "frightening emotional excesses." Thornton's self-released debut CD, Had a Sword, lives in this space between order and chaos. Musically, its songs rise and fall from rock-like intensity to muted meanderings. The record's themes, some of which derive from the Baptist Hymnal, build with assurance only to end in muddled obscurity. It's as if Thornton were throwing himself into the pit only to claw his way out, open his hymnal to "Lead Us, O Father" and lead us on another slow descent. There's no lesson to be learned from Thornton's fallings. (Since, as Mann writes, all are "heading direct for the pit," artists have no business teaching anyway.) He has nothing to say about religion per se, its evils or benefits, and offers no reconciliation between his strict church upbringing and his adult life. His songs allude to dependent love, homosexuality, masochism and God (sometimes all at the same time), but Thornton seems to take little stock in any of it. He remains passive, willing to accept whatever a lover, or God, has in store for him. Take, for example, "My Teacher," which has a sparse, pentatonic lilt reminiscent of Sunday school classics like "I Love to Tell the Story." "In a minute, the powers come down / With the sound of a black magic father," he begins as a low-fi drum loop begins to click away in the background. "He makes the whips of discipline / But still a friend / He'll get you off he'll get you further / My teacher come back again / Can't reach it or can't find the end / There's never another friend / Can't find a better man." Since Thornton's sexual orientation long ago ruled out his inclusion in Southern Baptist circles, he has suffered not for the faith but because of it; at various times, he seems both drawn to and repulsed by the Christian symbolism that informs his work. His lyrics show that, like many of us, his desires are tied to his understanding of God, and Had a Sword draws its strength from the tension between religious imagery and its often sexual subject matter. The pursuit of form and beauty, Mann tells us, is a journey that leads both to death (literally, in Ashenbach's case) and to "an immensity of rich expectation." Christianity may be dead for Thornton, but his childhood familiarity with Southern Baptist worship, its hymnody and preaching, gives form to Had a Sword. With that as his frame of reference, he can explore the more chaotic aspects of his adult life like sexuality, the nature of attachment and God. - Nashville Scene

...then there was Thornton, the evening's last and, by far, best band. As they bantered with each other and the crowd before getting started, the black-clad trio's casual professionalism immediately set them off from their counterparts on the bill. During the set, frontman and principal songwriter Kevin Thornton and his bandmate Brenton Morris deftly moved between electric grand piano and Fender guitar, with Morris switching to bass on occasion. Drummer Enoch Porch, who started out the set on musical saw, doubled on vintage synth and sometimes played both instruments simultaneously. Vocally, Kevin Thornton brings to mind Morrissey, but his band's sound is by no means derivative (a crippling issue for the rest of the acts on the bill). Songs like "My Teacher" (from the forthcoming CD, Had a Sword) borrow from cabaret, the Baptist Hymnal and the melancholy rock of, say, Kate Bush or Cocteau Twins. Live, this mix was especially distinctive due to the band's sonic and dynamic range, which is greater than what most rock trios are capable of. Add to this Thornton's smirking, dark appeal, and you have an artistic vision that's not only creatively relevant but also, one hopes, commercially viable. - Nashville Scene