Get Down, Funk Off
I heard a snippet of this album on myspace when I found out the CD was on its way to me. It was about 30 seconds, I was only half listening and I thought to myself, oh great another L.A. sleaze band trying to do the eighties all over again. This just goes to show that if you're going to form an opinion of something you should actually listen to the damn thing first.
I put it on in my car with a slight wince expecting subpar L.A. Guns to torture me for an hour, instead I was more than pleasantly surprised to get an earful of funk rock played with conviction and style that had this metal head of mine guiltily getting down with my bad self.
The opener 'Sure won't hurt you' sounds like 'The Black Crows' from when they were good, with lots of attitude and a messy sing a long chorus, this stuff is laid back and jumping all at the same time, erm... baby. But then the second track grooves in and it's so funky I half expected James Brown to show up and go ow!
It's impossible to sit still when listening to this unless you're dead inside, I've spent nights with a cruel menacing grimace on my face listening to Norwegian black metal and I still found myself getting funky within two minutes. It's crammed with riffs and grooves that'd make a gig jump nonstop. I bet they go down a storm live and if they play in this country I'll turn up in my Biomechanical t-shirt looking out of place but secretly having a great time.
Singer Rod Jackson has a great voice which reminds me on some tracks a little of Doug Pinnick of KingsX, lots of soul and feeling backed by some fantastic music utilising the good old wah wah pedal to good effect.
I think, and it's not very easy to admit this, but I think that I've had so much growling in the last couple of years that hearing something like this is totally refreshing and I bet I'm not the only one to feel like this. Don't worry though I'm not about to give up my Opeth CDs yet.
So if you fancy dancing about and enjoy funk rock then I'd heartily recommend this, it's well written, well performed and that's all you need to know. Highlights for me are 'Dirt ta Dust' and '2 busy livin'with more or less the rest of the album not very far behind. Did I say funky enough times?
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