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June 13, 2006
Some recently-released records deserve a mention.
Social! by Dallas
Alice
After releasing a stunning live debut, Louisville twang-rock favorites
Dallas Alice sleazed their way back into our hearts with
Social!, a raucous first studio album. This record shoots out of
the gate with the pop! of an opening beer and the dirty, knowing laugh
of your favorite cousin at Easter-time:
Well, I ain't red dirt
and I ain't white trash
I'm Midwest and a little bit left
of the middle class
How to describe a Dallas Allice set? Imagine the longest bourbon-boozy
night in the dankest bar in town with your best friend from back home
who's bearing a break-up, the frustration of a dead-end job and the
ghosts of his tragic forefathers, all at once. Imagine he can tell the
best stories of your youth using nothing but a guitar and a Camel Red,
you know the one about Joey's potato gun and you skinny dipping in the
lake? Then picture the rest of your guys leaning over his shoulder
giving him a "yeah yeah" chorus every time he makes the point you've
been trying to make your whole life.
Then you all take a shot!
Well, I might laugh at a dirty joke
Hang out with simple folk
And in my Catholic junior high
Well that's where I learned to drink and smoke
Dallas Alice hits coal mines and dead granddaddies, creepy preachers
and county sluts, pissed-off girlfriends and white trash pride,
clocking in Social! at just under an hour. This album spans Doc
Martens and Dingos, Chuck Taylors and bare feet, pickup trucks and
jacked-up Cadillacs, train tracks and small towns, all tinged with sex
and bourbon and death, just as it should be.
Tattooed, lately-mustachioed Sean Hopkins (lead vocals, acoustic
guitar) brings a southern-Illinoise existential nowheresville aesthetic
to these bar-room stompers, while Justin "The Colonel" Hughes bangs out
the rhythm guitar and all the heart, folks, all the fucking
heart. Don't underestimate bassist Nate Thumas' expertise or
unbridled joy - his backing vocals tell the whole story. Nick
Reifsteck's lead guitar proves he owns the most talented fingers in the
Midsouth, and drummer Matt Nofsinger keeps them all in line. What more
do you want? Go get the damn album already!
Switching moods, I can't say enough good things about
debut, A Breath of Sigh (Darla). If you were one of the smart
set, you might have caught them at SXSW last year or this past March,
but if you're like me, you have to learn to be content with your
pedestrian life and get your meager kicks whenever you can.
A Breath of Sigh sounds a little something like this: you're
lying in the soft soft grass of a rolling field, covered in a blanket
made of My Little Pony fur and painful truth, the sun warming your face
and a wind washing over you that smells like a time in your life when
you were both very, very happy and heartbroken at the same time. You
want to stay in that spot forever, but you also want to move on to the
next great adventure.
Follow the Train's sound honors the Flaming Lips, REM and the lush
interior landscape of lead vocalist and songwriter Dennis Sheridan's
anxious, expansive mind.
Do yourself a favor and pick up these records right this second. You
can order A Breath of Sigh through iTunes or the
website, and Dallas Alice will send you a Social! night or
day through their
website.
Do it do it do it..!
Posted by eek at June 13, 2006 12:08 AM