SAVAGE SLICES: Reviews by Eric Savage

CHUCKANUT DRIVE – “Fidelity Grange” (Ragtown Records – www.chuckanutdrive.net)

Hidden in the suburbs of Seattle, and apparently not making it out of the area much --- which is a shame --- is this alt-country combine which actually sounds more Texas grit than Seattle cool. Actually, think about Son Volt, but with more rock touches and with a more approachable singer than Jay Farrar (and with more accessible emotional content but without the whining). Or, and just as appropriately, think The Band or Bruce (in the “I’m On Fire mode) with a more country approach and a lot more swing to them. The band’s sound revolves around principal songwriter and lead singer Steve Leslie, a Texas native with a grainy and worn, but still warm quality and a Townes Van Zandt feel to his songwriting. Lead guitarist Loren Huggins is firmly in control of his Nashville licks and can push it harder when needed, assisted by occasional touches of horns, pedal steel and a bit of a gospel choir. This is a band which seems like it could be just as comfortable, and work the crowd equally well at Billy Bob’s and Maxwell’s. Occasional small glitches in production don’t really interfere with the enjoyment of the record which should get them a deservedly wider audience.

LANTERNS. – “Apocalypse Youth” EP (www.myspace.com/wearelanterns)

The EP starts out with a blast of distortion with Love-like intonations, then cranks into a hard-driving blaster with reminiscences of Cheap Trick and Sonic Youth. For the next four songs, they joyously, and loudly, pound out energetic pop-oriented tunes, with plenty of distortion, twists in the rhythm and hard-hitting bass lines which hold up some pretty tuneful stuff. It’s a good introduction to what the band can (apparently) do and suggests that they could get a room moving quickly and with good reason. All that makes the end disappointing, an overly distorted, navel-gazing momentum killer “Electric Warrior Kisses” which apparently seems designed to lead to some kind of powerful emotional climax, but really on leads to hitting the “stop” button. Too bad – the first four songs carve out a nice space in that indie/emo universe with a lot of energy and repeatable tunes. A full album of that would be very well worth hearing.

MAD ANTHONY - EP (www.phratryrecords.com)

This Cincinnati four-piece band is largely based on former members of The Black Scabs and their five-song EP is a solid appetite-whetter for more. The orientation sits somewhere in the mid-space between garage and punk, slightly more pumped up than the former and more melodic and with more developed musicianship than the former often displays. They claim the Cramps as models, and the lyric have Cramps-like sci-fi and horror movie references (“When I fell asleep I was myself/But when I woke up I was someone else;”) but musically, Fugazi, the Damned, even the Hives come more to mind. The band displays a more sophisticated than usual sense of building melodies, and throws in rhythm and tempo changes without sounding like they’re trying to impress anyone (except perhaps on “July 24th”, the last selection, where the momentum gets dissipated by too many shifts. Adam Flaig’s lead guitar provides a sonic glue above an accomplished rhythm section and some good original songwriting. Here’s hoping there are more songs in the can somewhere and that they’ll be released eventually.

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