*** The Karl Hendricks Trio SOME GIRLS LIKE CIGARETTES
(Merge)
Sexually frustrated,
mildly depressed, overly sensitive, and given to restless
fits of songwriting genius,
Pittsburgh's
Karl Hendricks may be the male
Liz Phair,
or a less self-consciously complicated Lou Barlow. Either way, Some
Girls Like Cigarettes, a 10-song disc that compiles tracks from a
hopelessly obscure 1993 EP and single (on Big Ten Rex and Mind Cure), gets my
vote for the best overlooked indie release of the year. "Some girls like
cigarettes/some girls don't/They say some girls will/but most of them won't,"
goes the opening verse of the guitar-slamming title track. It's surely an
allusion to the Stones
song, but Mick Jagger's
"Some Girls" is a sleazy boast
about all the different kinds of chicks he's fucked. Hendricks has only dreamed
about approaching such women -- the ones he refers to as "Pittsburgh's Hottest
Babes" in the next tune -- and when he finally addresses a girlfriend a few
songs later, he's uncool enough to call her "Smartypants." Hendricks isn't
afraid to spill his awkward guts, to sound reckless and confused. But he
balances each geeky confessional with bold, muscular guitar hooks and a
hyperactive rhythm section that churns with the certainty of
Superchunk. And if
it isn't the best way to get dates, at least it rocks with conviction.
-- Matt Ashare
|
