| |
|
|
DELIVERANCE
(Sound King import)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Is Montreal the next Sweden? Intrepid rock-and-roll bloodhounds will already be familiar with the shaggy-dog stoner punk of Tricky Woo and the internationalist cock rock of Danko Jones, and there’s more where that came from. Top of the heap to these ears are Bionic, whose frontman, a critic for the Montreal Mirror named Jonathan Cummins, discovered Danko a few years back (see Deliverance’s "Political Song for Danko Jones To Sing"). Deliverance finds our cold-blooded brothers to the north fine-tuning a woolly-mammoth wallop that, unlike so many other hirsute howls from the bowels of rockdom, doesn’t skimp on hooks. Their bolt-throwing "Ballad of the Electric Brains" kicks as hard as any Queens of the Stone Age hit (secret ingredient: note-for-note cops of Nirvana’s "Breed"); "Nobody To Blame" could be mistaken for Chris Cornell fronting Kyuss, with Turbonegro solos. The molten-metal riff on the opening "Turn You Out" recalls the brief glory days when grunge had bite and singers (I’m thinking of Jesus Lizard’s David Yow) screamed their faces off. Bionic’s familiarity with the classics — Who, Stones, Skynyrd — elevates "Forty Miles" above the MC5-by-the numbers fare of recent Hellacopters/Bad Wizard efforts; "Bad Times" connects the dots between sweet Southern rock’s comforting harmonies and Detroit’s stuck-on-the-assembly-line swagger. If you’re looking for the fault line demarcating vintage R&B, hard rock, and punk, you could do worse than "Shake It Annie, Shake It," where Cummins lashes Thin Lizzy licks up against another Nirvana-ish guitar onslaught, gets soul-sanctified religion and leaves a good job in the city, then works up the ghost of his old pop-punk outfit the Doughboys for a Veruca Salt–encrusted chorus that sends the whole thing rolling on the river. Maybe the most amazing thing about this disc is that though it’s been hailed throughout Canada and across Europe, no one in America wants to distribute it. (It’s available on-line through CD Baby and stonerrock.com, or through the band’s Web site at www.bionicland.com.) Early fans of the Hellacopters, Backyard Babies, Gluecifer, and Turbonegro know the feeling: it’s a crime. (Bionic open for Nashville Pussy this Monday, December 8, at T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline Street in Kenmore Square; call 617-492-BEAR.)
|
