THE
PAPERBACKS EP - The
Paperbacks (Enabler)
This debut from Chicago's Paperbacks sounds not so much like a six-song EP as
a series of beer-drenched bar fights, big-mouth singer Laura Hotshot fouling
the air with boasts, taunts, and threats, the rest of the band raging 
along
behind her and egging her on.
Whether she's calling you a catastrophe, insisting she knows rock and roll, or promising to ruin you, Hotshot exhibits all the macho bluster of Dirty Harriet, daring you to shut her up, punk. Despite all of this cattiness, her shining moment here is the slightly less caustic yet still defiant "You Won't Get My Tears," guitarists Chris Butler and Jay Bennett, drummer Robbie Butler, and bassist Todd McDonald taking a temporary break from the raw, sock-it-to-me assault on your inner ear in favour of a shimmering tone.
While so many of the kids enrolled in Remedial Rawk 101 these days just can't seem to get it quite right, these guys are too long in the tooth to do anything but pulsate with a sense of desperation, their resumes crammed with credits like Seam, the Goblins, the New Rob Robbies, and the Chinese Millionaires. "Drop Dead Crazy" and "Way Out & Wild" bristle with jagged electrics, a knock-it-back outlook on life, and enough squalid integrity to turn your hair white overnight.
For all of her badass bravado, Hotshot may be either camera shy or just attempting to effect an air of mystery, since the CD insert only shows one clear photo of her, the rest focusing on a rippling torso packed into a pair of tight red leather pants and white belly shirt, looking like Meg White's gym rat sister fuelled by a steady diet of protein shakes and steroids.
Proclaiming themselves Chicago's last hope for rock and roll, it will be interesting
to see if the Paperbacks are built for the long haul. Unfortunately, that which
they hope to save wasn't. - Clark Paull
