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Album
Gutterball
Weasel
(Diverse)
Price: 69 SEK
Gutterball consisted of college-radio all-stars Steve Wynn (vocals, guitar), Stephen McCarthy (guitar, vocals), Bryan Harvey (vocals, guitar), Johnny Hott (drums), and Bob Rupe (bass, vocals). Every member of Gutterball has a rock & roll resumé that would be recognizable to left-of-the-dial listeners. Wynn lead the neo-psychedelic band the Dream Syndicate, an integral part of Los Angeles' Paisley Underground, in the early '80s; McCarthy is from the roots rock act the Long Ryders; Harvey and Hott once comprised House of Freaks; and Rupe is from the Silos. “Weasel”, the second album by the virtually unknown garage band supergroup, led by Steve Wynn, the greatest lo-fi jangle-pop songwriter ever (is there any competition?), this album reveals its side project roots, but it's hardly a throw-away. Sure, the songs were recorded quickly by garage band pros, and they're unhindered by slick production. But the band's talent and Wynn's consummate minimalist storytelling (understated, but direct, and ranging from amusing and wry to moody to sly to brooding to dark and sinister) lend this disc a cool, smirking, self-aware vibe that more than makes up for the weight that it and other side projects often lack. You have only to hear Wynn sneer, »Now everybody says that I'm stupid and lazy / People are so kind, man, they just amaze me« to get into the hangover-haze groove. Rueful self-mockery is this game, not self-indulgence: »When I was young I was incredibly stupid / I was five parts devil and seven parts cupid,« the opening rocker, »Transparency,« proclaims. It nicely leads into the black humor of the restraining-order blues »Is There Something I Should Know?« As he says on »Maria,« »some trains just kinda pass you by.« Whether his characters are »soaking rags with gasoline« (»California«) or being drunken and silly (»No one goes there anymore / There's always such a crowd,« Wynn slurs on "The Firefly), there's always a little more to discover in these musical tales. An admirable work indeed.
Denna sida är designad till tonerna av White Stripes och Rodney Crowell.