ONE MAN AGAINST THE WORLD - John Schooley and his One Man Band (Voodoo
Rhythm)
With an album title like that is John Schooley looking for a therapist or reassurance? Well, here goes. There are times on this album when Schooley sounds like he should rule the world. Now harden the fuck up, son, and keep making music this good. Minimalist rockabilly? Fucked up country blues? Sitting pretty in the garage rock expanse between country, rockabilly and lo-fi blues-skronk, Schooley continues a tradition of compelling and spirited music.
Call it anything you like. Schooley first came to my notice on a Hard Feelings album that The Onyas' Rich Stanley put out in Australia on his Dropkick label half a decade or more ago, and the Texan-by-transplant hasn't put a foot wrong since. While The Hard Feelings were brash, in your face and impossible to ignore, the John Schooley of these days is busy exploring his roots. Which isn't to say this is serious, navel-gazing stuff or overly respectful, it's just that he's taking time to find out who brewed his moonshine.
From the moody, sample-ridden (yes, that read correctly - but relax, it's mostly word salads buried in wheezy harp) opener and title track to the warped reprise of the same song that closes it, this is one stunning trip. Schooley plays the blues/garage/whatever like no-one else. With economy, feeling and scant regard for critical acceptance (though I'm guessing it might be nice to pay the bills.) Just don't expect anything resembling mainstream radio to touch it. Fuckers.
Can you call garage blues a "mash up"? Buggered if I know but there's variety of styles to choose from on this album, whose only common thread is Schooley's rustic ethos. "Cantrell Creek Breakdown" is hillbilly-infested instrumental, "Every Day Can Get You Down" an Oblivians-styled stomp and "The Crooked Path" a cooking blues lament/murder song driven by a husky harmonica and boot-full of Delta dirt. And that's all in the space of three songs.
Lee Hazelwood gets more than a nod in "My Baby Cried All Night Long" (more like a fixated and lengthy gaze.) "I Don't Like The Blues No How" (Carolina Tar Heels), "Wildcat Tamer" (Dale Hawkins) and "Somebody In My Home" (Howlin' Wolf) are all moderately to wildly obscure covers, but perhaps the best appropriation is from someone called Billy Bizor with a live-in-the-radio-studio "Screwdriver" (DJ Kev Lobotomi gets a namecheck in the liners.) Excuse the beatbox here and the vocals could be up in the mix but but the delivery is a killer, with slide so sharp you could slice stale tomatoes with it.
A one man band record with a reason for living. Down, dirty and delectable. – The
Barman
JOHN
SCHOOLEY AND HIS ONE MAN BAND – John Schooley (Voodoo
Rhythm)
Imported Texan John Schooley’s status as one of Austin’s most
ubiquitous musical talents is enhanced by this 12-tracker on the always intriguing Voodoo Rhythm label from Switzerland. Raw and wild Chicago blues,
with the occasional Delta blues reference point, makes for a scorching ride.
Raw, rootsy blues with a fucked-up bent is one of the cause celebres of the
so-called Garage Rock Revival. What you should know is that Schooley has been
ably championing that stuff for years, mixing roots and punk with a string
of bands who’ve done their share of touring in the US and Europe. Here,
however, the ex-Revelators and Hard Feelings (I think they’re still
a going concern) guitarist plays all the instruments himself.
While some of his contemporaries concentrate on stripping things right back
and selectively turning up the instrumental distortion, Schooley puts everything
on 11 and lays down a dark, dense bed of slide and blues harp. Clattering,
driving rhythms abound and a cut like “Tiger Man” is so dense
you couldn’t penetrate it with a barbecue skewer (which is also a corny
segue into a comment that the whole disc “cooks”).
There’s the occasional flat vocal to remind you that this is bluesy
rock and roll, not a choir ensemble, and Schooley’s guitar playing is
nicely, ahem, unschooled. There’s enough going on here to make you forget
it’s one man playing everything.
Pushing this sort of trashy blues, it was a matter of time that Schooley would
end up on Voodoo Rhythm after stints with Sympathy, Crypt and Australia’s
own Dropkick. Voodoo Rhythm’s head honcho, Beat-Man,
has a personal history of one-man band mayhem and his roster is full of the
raw, the rotsy and the outright weird. Beat-Man dipped a toe into the market
with a Schooley single in 2004 and the results were encouraging enough to
do a full album.
Bob Log III has done enough visits Down Under to make you think a Schooley
tour is feasible (ED: And so it came to pass.) Presumably, with one mouth to feed the overheads
are pretty low. Texas has a musically rich and little-known crop of raw rock
bands (see the “Shaking In My Boots” compile on
Licorice Tree ). John Schooley in solo band mode is another notable
from those parts worth cocking an ear to. – The
Barman
3/4
