Brandon Pfeiffer: Nothing Short of Now

Mixing equal parts of rock and Americana, Brandon Pfeiffer’s six-song effort is pretty good. Falling somewhere along the lines of an indie rock version of Pete Yorn, Pfeiffer gets his groove on with the simple and catchy “Woven Wood” that brings to mind newcomers like Jake Stigers. Unfortunately, things tend to get into a rather sappy, melodic mode with “Missing You”, which seems to lack some punch and falls off the rails rather quickly. Pfeiffer changes his mood from song to song, trying to do his best at the earnest, heart-worn-on-your-tattered-denim-jacket-sleeve singer-songwriter vibe for “Get Inspired”, which works much better than the previous track by going in the vein of Howie Day. One annoying number is “Out to See”, because it’s damn good, but Pfeiffer sells the song much too short as it peters out after two minutes. Nothing here comes off as stellar or jaw-dropping, but Pfeiffer does have the chops to get tender tunes such as “Be the First to Die” easily across.