Americana Music Reviews

 

Slobberbone
Slippage
New West Records
by Jud Block

Life is not an immutable prospect. Change is an inevitable fact of damn near every facet of existence. Sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad, but regardless of your immediate subjective reaction to it, change requires a certain period of acclimation before you can have even a relatively honest opinion of it; especially when the alteration is to something that you probably hold a little too close to sacred. I realize that this is exposing a major flaw in my cynic's façade, but one of these things, for me, is the music of Slobberbone. From the first power chord of Crow Pot Pie to the last ringing mandolin on Everything You Thought Was Right Was Wrong Today, they brought the manic energy of punk rock as filtered through the Outlaw movement combined with drunken poetic insights worthy of the great Bukowski to forge an alt.-country sound that was pure Texas. So when I received a copy of their new CD, Slippage, which I had been anticipating like an art collector does an obscure artist's death, I'll be damned if I didn't have an unforeseen acclimation issue on my hands.

It seems for this recording, the Slobber boys decided to abandon the Great Lone Star Republic for the arid confines of California in order to work with the venerable producer/engineer/mixer Don Smith, whose resume reads like a roster for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan). Naturally, I was eager to hear the outcome of the collaboration between this legendary technician and what I humbly consider to be the best band on the planet. But when I listened to the new disc for the first time, I was a little disturbed by how polished the sound was, as well as the fact that nearly all of the band's country elements - - banjo, mandolin, etc. - - had been pretty much stripped out. Basically, there I was floundering in change again. I listened to the CD almost continuously for an entire weekend, and each time I reached the end of track eleven, it all made a little more sense, until it finally dawned on me - - Slippage is Slobberbone's unadulterated rock record. And, damn, does it rock.

The production and the sound lean more toward the Indie end of the scale than anything they've ever done before. That's not to say you're going to confuse these guys with Sonic Youth. The patented Slobberbone guitar sound still surfaces here and there throughout the disc and Brent Best's lyrics, full of dark-humored word play and unexpected metaphor, haven't lost their literary bent in the least. This is the kind of CD that gets better with every listen, and it could very well make Slobberbone the music world's most important already existent discovery this side of bluegrass.

The disc leads off with "Springfield, IL," which is about the ambiguity involved in the awkward demise of a relationship between two people who are either too polite or scared to admit to one another that things are over. Brent Best's lyrical dexterity and Shane MacGowan-two-shots-in vocal style as well as Slobberbone's pounding guitar sound are on full display on this one.

Springfield, Illinois
You left me standing by the state house stairs
A little still annoyed
But completely unaware
Of anything I said
That gave me pause
As to what goes on inside my head
Was there something I should've seen
What exactly did you mean

Brent Best is a songwriter whose lyrics have to be listened to in order to find the clues he gives that allow you to decipher what the hell is really happening in his songs. For instance, the song "Stupid Words," which could simply be about the problems of communication, has a dark twist to it that's illuminated by a single lyric - - overlook it, and you miss the point of the song entirely. Also, because of Best's literary style, many of Slobberbone's songs can be interpreted in many ways. "Sister Beams" is a case in point. To a musical backdrop fraught with barroom melancholy and sinister possibility, Best weaves a tale of a man who intends to leave his fiance at the altar; unfortunately, he makes the mistake of telling her brother of his intentions, and that's where the uncertainty comes into play. Why exactly does the fiance not show up? The verbal ambiguity of the lyrics leaves it up to the listeners to decide.

Sister she don't talk so loud
Now that things are through
She's waiting on some old advice
But it will never come true
And she asks me if I'll stay with her
But I've got something to do
You see, now he's dead, he must've lost his head
When I struck him with what to do

Then there's a song like "Butchers." Brent and the boys have a dark streak that they've often indulged with songs about murder like "I Can Tell Your Love Is Waning" and "Billy Prichard," but "Butchers," with its repeated phrase "But he/she/they will never get the blood stains off his/her/their hands," is their most complex effort to date. With a driving drum beat propelling an almost Smithereens-like pop melody, Best sings about the ramifications, both emotional and physical, of people's actions, and as he does so, the word "butcher," like an anamorphic image, changes in meaning. It's songs like this that provide a damn persuasive argument for tight-assed academia to allow songwriters into the literary canon.

But the song that should make Slobberbone a household name is their cover of The BeeGees "To Love Somebody." Not only does it overshadow the original, it is custom made for any of the innumerable teen movies and television shows that have proliferated like the snakehead fish over the last decade or so. Of course, it would take an almost career ending display of taste on some executive's part, but it's still possible.

Slobberbone is the best unknown band in America. They have been able to take a hard-rocking sound and combine it with thoughtful, honest, cerebral lyrics in a way that most can only pretend to in their most drunken of stupors. With the release of Slippage, their sound has further evolved into one that will challenge their older fans and should, finally, put an end to their inexplicable obscurity.

Slippage will be released on Sept. 24. Until then get the background on Slobberbone at www.slobberbone.com, so when that bandwagon pulls up to your door, you can pretend you've known about them for years.

Contact Jud Block at jud-at-rockzilla.net

 
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