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Rock’n’roll Verbena (vrrr-bee’-na/pop.3)
got its first whiff of escape courtesy the good people at Merge Records,
an EP combining two self-released 7-inches leading to the 1997 full-length
debut, Souls For Sale. Predictable regimen of touring
followed, and so the attention of some big record labels. “Into The
Pink,” produced by Dave Grohl, marked their Capitol
records bow in ‘99.
What’s made plain through the records and the seven year’s transit, is
that there is, of course, no exit: the South has dug a proud scar across
the band and its mongrel punk blues. La Musica Negra, as
produced by Rob Schnapf (Beck, Guided By Voices, Elliot Smith),
takes its fury mostly from the ancient Bible-country conflict betwixt the
pious and the prurient. Where immortal hellhounds trailed and devoured the
forefathers of the blues (and its hillbilly seed, rock’n’ roll), Scott
Bondy’s 21st Century update surely doesn’t see those dogs go hungry.
“Me & Yr Sister,” “Devil in Miss Jones,” and “All the Saints”
crawl up from a haunted Delta tradition, where familiar demons--distilled,
sexual and chemical--seldom stop to rest. ”Killing Floor (Get Down On
It),” and “I, Pistol” mock the Bush II brute American
burlesque, as “Way Out West” (much like “The Desert” on
Souls), “Camellia” and “Dirty Goodbyes” take different
paths to refuge.
La Musica Negra
is the band’s first without a contribution from Anne Marie Griffin, as
remaining founders Bondy (guitar, vocals) and Les Nuby (drums) team here
with Nick Daviston (bass) on all 13 tracks. The son of a working jazz
musician and lifelong resident of Birmingham, Daviston’s been heard to
wonder lately whether this might be his ticket out.
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