Album of the Week

It was only a matter of time before we started doing written album reviews.  I’ve resisted for so long because, let’s face it, music reviews these days are terrible.  Unless the writer is actively engaged in denouncing ever life-decision the artist has ever made, they just seem so superfluous.  But I want to give the written review a chance.  After all, I’ve always enjoyed reading Lester Bang’s work.  So in the spirit of Bangs, let there be rock!  Specifically in the form of an album review of Gin Lady’s self-titled release:

I hate so many aspects of today’s “Indie Rock” scene.  Even excluding all the peripheral ascetics and attitudes (take an ex-girlfriends pontifications on it’s superiority: “I think as you grow up you transition from genre to genre until you eventually reach Indie music.”), there’s so much to hate about the sound.  It’s become something akin to a satire of contemporary music; as though musicians are making up lyrics on the spot, singing with that voice you only don to annoy your closest friend, hitting any random six notes on the guitar over and over in lieu of a riff, and looking around at their bandmates saying, “Can you believe it?  They’re STILL listening to us.”  For the longest time, I simply gave up on new music.  After being corrected on the pronounciation of “Bon Iver” (“Not Bon Iver, it’s Bone Eeeverrrr”) I had had enough of music altogether.

That is until i discovered Gin Lady.  Gin Lady, born out of the ashes of it’s band members former group Black Bonzo, is one of the last great hopes for Rock ‘n’ Roll.  If The Walkmen make you want to commit vehicular manslaughter, if Purity Ring causes you to instinctively begin digging your own grave, if you’ve promised yourself that you would put a bullet in your head the next time Alex Scally exhales and reverbs his way through a Beach House track, then Gin Lady is the band for you.  Take the very first track off Rebirth’s debut album.  The build-up echos the great power of tracks like Zeppelin’s very first song, “Good Times Bad Times.”  Forget bobbing, this album’s a headbanger.  The raw energy reminds us what we’ve been missing, why we’ve been so depressed about the state of music today.  Listening to Gin Lady prompts a reawakening: Solid Contemporary rock exists, and we deserve better than the crap we’ve been sold.  Now check yourself into a hotel, crank up Gin Lady, and tear the room apart.      

(Source: Spotify)

“Rock music back in those times was filled with the spirit of experimentation, but most musicians were still eager to write good memorable songs, and when these approaches meet each other we have masterpieces like ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’ or ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’.”

– Igor Sidorenko of Stoned Jesus (interview with It’s Psychedelic Baby)

Rock ‘n’ Roll’s not dead, it just lives here now.    

(Source: Spotify)

“We were living in Reaganomics, we were living in the threat of nuclear war. It was definitely a scary time, having someone like that in office. The Moral Majority - I mean, there were a lot of reasons to be an angry high school kid singing very pointed, political lyrics.”

– Reed Mullin of Leadfoot formerly of Corrosion of Conformity (interview with Drop D)

Rock ‘n’ Roll’s not dead, it just lives here now.   

(Source: Spotify)

“It’s exciting, because you’re in the basement of some old house rehearsing, not a studio, and you think, ‘We’ve got some fantastic material here. Sounds awesome, sounds killer. But nobody knows about it.’ It’s fun. It’s like you’ve got a secret weapon you’re about to unleash.”

– Michael Amott of Spiritual Beggars (interview with The Obelisk)

Rock ‘n’ Roll’s not dead, it just lives here now.  

(Source: Spotify)

“Greatest Misconception of the Buffalo Killers is that we’re this 70’s classic rock band. It’s sad to think that people consider rock and roll music to be of a passed time. It’s always been here. And we’re here now and we’re making music for today not for tribute.”

– Andrew Gabbard of Buffalo Killers (interview with Bad Vibes)

Rock ‘n’ Roll’s not dead, it just lives here now.  

(Source: Spotify)

“It is as if time stood still in Sweden and we are still in the ‘Golden age of rock music’. Frankly I do not mind at all. As long as there are bands daring to be so unashamedly old-fashioned like Blueback (or DeWolff in the Netherlands) there is hope.”

– Jan-Simon reviews Blowback’s latest album “Eight Hundred Miles” (full review at Lords of Metal)

Rock ‘n’ Roll’s not dead, it just lives here now.  

(Source: Spotify)

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