Devils Elbow - Broken Record Syndrome

 I've been aware of Devils Elbow for quite some time.  In fact, they first sent me an email about three or four years ago and I listened to their songs on their myspace player and the country tinged tunes did zero for me so it was easier to ignore them than write about them.   When I saw them live, I just considered them an annoyance simply by being the second support band before Grant Hart.

The line-up has since changed since I saw them live with the addition of Ben Lee on bass and bacing vocas.  There's been a change of drummer too.  Although none of that really matters because Alex Withers is the only constant Devils Elbow musician on this release of eight songs from 2011 and 2012.  Both release opener "Broken Record Syndrome" and "Trouble" contain harmonica and  possess a catchy melody reminicent of the mid-80's hits by the likes of The Hooters and John Mellencamp. Alec Withers sings and plays all the instruments in  "The Big Smoke" which is country tinged with a beefy guitar sound.  "Endless Dedication" is punk rock tinged country.  This is how Social Distortion would sound if they plyed their hands at country music.  Checked shirt wearing Country music traditionalists are likely to enjoy "Like A Flash" and find something more than those that just want to rock out because the harmonica and female backing vocals convince that song was written to be played at a hay covered barndance.  The instrumental "Bones Below" is heavily reliant on the swing of the rhythm section and  has a nice and sleazy feel ala The Stranglers.

The refined blend of country, punk and rock works well on this release.  This is one  that is likely to convert non-believers and skeptics.  See y'all at Mass.  The 8 song EP can ber downloaded at their bandcamp site for a limited time.

3.5/5

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Bradley Wik and The Charlatans - Burn What You Can, Bury The Rest

I admit that I know near to nothing about the alt-country movement and wasn't even sure if I should use a hyphen or a full stop in the sub-genre's abbreviated name.  My knowledge starts with John Doe and ends right at Drag The River.  Uncle Tupelo and Wilco have largely gone ignored by this writer due to personal taste defining most of it as just plain boring.

    Both of my ears pricked up when I heard Bradley Wik and The Charlatans and it wasn't just because I thought the UK indie band had immigrated to the states.  There's an attention grabbing  gravelly raw country in the voice which melodically emotes "The Dark Lovely".  Just try listening to "66 Chevelle" without thinking of Springsteen, the Boss comes through in both Bradley's voice and the lyrics which resonate with fond remembrance of long gone younger days.
And many Night/s I’ve tried to go back to our younger days/
Listenin’ to the Stones in her daddy’s car/ Out on some Lost Highway
And we’d just pull that car off to the side of the road/
And we’d drink and we’d kiss and we’d talk about the future.

Bradley Wik represents the average working man from first hand knowledge in "Friday Night is for the Drinkers"  It's hard to fathom many who can't relate to the last lines even if it was many years ago:

Friday Night is for the Drinkers trying to shake off the
week/And Saturday Night is for all the Boys and Girls trying to
find someplace new to sleep.

"This Old House" and "I am Not Afraid" use the backing vocals of Brianne Kathleen effectively as the two voices interlock but it's still clear exactly who is the main player. There's a soul completely stripped naked in "Just Like John Fickes" demonstrating song-writing, which is capable of storytelling without getting lost in narrative and losing the song part.

I have been depriving myself if this is anything like what Uncle Tupelo and Wilco sound like and those punk bands I've heard who want to sound like Springsteen should listen to this and take notes.   Though I would suggest changing the name of the band  but that's only because I have prior knowledge of the UK indie rockers.  This album will strongly appeal to fans of Steve Earle and Bruce Springsteen plus a lot of alt.country fans.  See, I'm still not sure about the sub-genre's shortened form.

4/5

There's a sneak peak of the album on this site.

Black Friday with John Doe and Jim White

Black Friday, March 13, 2009 was indeed a lucky day for live music fans in Wellington. Head Like A Hole who are now known as HLAH were playing a sold out reunion gig at Mighty Mighty. However that sold out at least a week before the band were due to take the stage.
Black Chrome were playing a show with one wolfman band, Boss Christ at the Adelaide tavern. However I passed both those up to see John Doe of X and Jim White play alt-country at the San Francisco Bath House. I wasn't familiar with the solo material of either so went in with a fairly open mind. I arrived at the time the doors opened to find a local band already playing. They were called Blackwater and very much a country band.



John Doe played first and his country tinged solo material impressed. His stage banter included introducing a song as an auto-biographical murder song and stating that Nick Cave writes a lot of Murder songs but has never written an auto-biographical one and a speech on how the old punk guys are dropping like flies yet all of Fleetwood Mac are still alive.
He played a couple of songs with Jim White on guitar.



I'd never heard of Jim White before attending this show but his brand of alternative country won me over in a live setting. Although this could be due to that his between song speeches made for interesting listening. Confessing to looking out the hotel window and timing the length of a trick at Il Bordello led to a story about him, while being a good Southern Christian boy, selling sunblock at a whorehouse in his city. There were also stories of surfing in tornado storms while on acid.



John Doe joined him on stage for a few songs. While I enjoyed Jim White live, it's John Doe's solo output that I'm more interested in digging up for a listen. Lesson learned: alt-country is not be a genre to be written off.