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Arts and Culture

A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss

But what about a swinging, New York power trio?

Adrian Mack 29 Apr 2010TheTyee.ca

Adrian Mack contributes a regular music column to The Tyee and frequently sits behind Rich Hope.
Earl Greyhound
Earl Greyhound on day 1 of its interstate crime spree.

Screw Earl Greyhound. I've scoured its new album Suspicious Package for a fatal flaw, or even a minor one - but no. It's clean. Maybe it runs out of puff a little towards the end, but so do lots of your favourite records. Beyond that, there's nary an embarrassing widdly-widdly or any other lapse into tastelessness across this lens-flare-kissed and proudly resin-stained album of high-power, classic rock distillate.

I just invented that genre -- "High-power classic rock distillate." You can use it to describe any bi-racial, Brooklyn-based power trio making new millennium rock music with enough self-possession and internal consistency to rise above pastiche. It's a pretty slim genre.

Last year, the Decembrists' Colin Meloy described Black Mountain as "mossy," and it happens to apply quite nicely to Earl Greyhound. Right off the top, bassist-vocalist and probable sorceress Kamara Thomas brings a numinous atmosphere to "The Eyes of Cassandra Part 2," suggesting a pagan celebration presided over by the ghost of Sandy Denny.

Or check her howl of "Why-yi-yi-yo" about two-thirds of the way into "Sea of Japan," a number that arrives at "mossy" only after dragging the listener through a quasi-new wave intro and into a propulsive "Achilles Last Stand" pocket. Speaking of which, if "Oye Vaya" could use a little less Zep, the band redresses the balance with a straight-up pop song like "Black Sea Vacation," which, seriously, could be credibly covered by Maroon 5 without anybody getting their knickers in a twist.

On "Ghost and the Witness," the Greyhound somehow finds a shortcut through Queens of the Stone Age, the Police, and Rush, only to arrive at the kind of beefy blues rock that'd sit perfectly on the Raconteurs' (great) last album.

It's all so heady, messed up and glorious. And that's without considering the individual strengths of Thomas, guitarist-vocalist Matt Whyte, or drummer Ricc Sheridan. Especially Sheridan, who swings like the biggest dick since Buddy Miles while overplaying his guts out and giving us an easy contender for drum fill of the year at the 2:30 mark of "Bill Evans."

Which you can hear for yourself because, praise be, the band is streaming the whole album right here. Do yourself the favour. Suspicious Package is basically so good that I think it might even verge on smug. So screw Earl Greyhound. I mean, for one thing, do they have to be so good looking about it? [Tyee]

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