Save the Scene

The folks at the Roland Corporation, who manufacture and market the Boss BR-1180 Digital Recording Studio, might want to consider buying up a few thousand copies of Save the Scene, the first album from the Athens, GA indie rock band King of Prussia, and hand them out to potential users of the BR-1180 as a show of what the gizmo can do in the right hands. Brandon Hanick and Trey McManus of King of Prussia recorded the entire album on the one of the portable digital eight-track recorders, but you wouldn't guess to listen to it — the disc is a minor masterpiece of semi-pro production, full of epochal guitar sounds, massed vocals, ethereal keyboard tones, and ringing percussion that would be the envy of plenty of bands with bigger budgets and proper recording facilities. However, it should be noted that most folks who buy a BR-1180 can't come up with songs the way King of Prussia can — the melodies lace traces of psychedelic whimsy through emphatic, hook-laden pop/rock, and the tiny army of players who bring the tunes to life perform with a palpable joy that suggests the Flaming Lips without ironic affectation, or Radiohead after mainlining some good Southern hospitality. It's anyone's guess what King of Prussia can do for an encore after a debut as accomplished as Save the Scene, but if they can create something this grand in a handful of bedrooms and practice spaces, imagine what they could do with a few days in a real studio.