Feral Housecats
Go Feral Yourself!
(Hot Boots Records)
Rock'n'Roll has become a global, multi-billion-greenback corporate behemoth, with its own mega-luminaries tarted up in pricey, designer fashions and a 'money talks' Hall of Fame that excludes actually meritorious sorts of that specified genre in favor of made-to-order Hip Hop gagmen.
Feral Housecats are an indispensible 'fuck you' to such overblown commodified/domesticated shenanigans, much as was the glorious Punk eruption of the 1970s. There are occasional, unsanded edges here. And that's entirely okay. Rock'n'Roll (as was first germinated, and remains in true believers' hearts) isn't supposed to cover its mouth when sneezing.
These guys dig to death the cool dirtiness they do. And that truth-in-tuneful-demolition is one matter that separates authentics from counterfeits. Another is outsiderness of the sort that guarantees one's John Hancock never shows up on tea-luncheon invitation scrolls.
These 11 ditties alternatively scream, lope, mesmerize, and spring forth unstoppably, with each player pounding out 110 percent. Far and away, most rock-'em-sock-'em tracks emanated from the hip pen of guitar/vocals man Greg McGill. (Rounding out this well-turned, no-garage-could-hold-'em ensemble are bassist David Evans, drummer Evan Carr, and guitarist David Auden. Some extra drumming came courtesy of Andrew Gordon.)
Now and again, gestures redolent of classical songs that once hummed from car dashboard radios while he's and she's got down to business find ways into arrangements, but always with idiosyncratic sways. Souls uncrating this thankfully ragged effort, during big-grin appraisals, will dig bits of Contours, Lux Interior and David Byrne (in vocal moments), The Forest Hills pinheads, and Fun Comes In Spurts curl-shooting that's led-wayward wigged-out kids since Roky Erickson first met the 13th Floor Elevators.
Rock'n'Roll should never be welcome in scrupulously polite environs. The humongous thing the calculator crowd has made of our music is of no interest to devotees of the real article. But never forget that all that garbage was built atop sounds rebellious, spirited, and that Feral Housecats heft high the torch.
Recommended: "Gee, I Wish I Could Paint," "I Hope," "Murder in the Basement," "Strong Bones and Sharp Teeth," "I Luv U But I Hate U2," "Something Good," "An FHc's Surfing Theme," "I Shoulda," "Sniper," "Don't Go Home with L. Cohen"
Videos: "Gee, I Wish I Could Paint" "Strong Bones and Sharp Teeth" "Sniper"
No comments:
Post a Comment