AMERICAN SEIZURE - Sour Jazz (Acetate
Records)
Spontaneity be thy name. Recorded in just two days - most of the band reside in the Big Apple but guitarist Mr Ratboy buys his suits with Made in Japan labels - "American Seizure" is another quirky and thoroughly entertaining work from these subversive solipsists.
If the point has been laboured in past reviews that Sour Jazz is the closest thing to "New Values" since Iggy bounced up and down on Molly Meldrum's guest chair on Aussie TV back in the '80s, you can rest assured that things are still the same. Mr Popular channels the Osterberg croon better than a man hisself (although he resists the temptation of singing in French) and the rest of the crew kick out some mean Rock Action Stonesy jams.
And what jams they are. "Cigarettes & Coughy" has Mr Ratboiy swapping licks with trombone and sax atop a killer rock grind-groove. "Masquerader" gets things off to a start and signals a dirtier, scuzzier sound is prevailing. "Bad Times Coming" slides into view with a sniff of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" before a chunk of fat guitar puts the issue beyond doubt.
"Black Maria" and "Little Hands" are the oases of lyrical introspection, producer Daniel Rey contributing some fine mandolin to the latter. "Monsieur Flop" has a rhythm line that's harder than a silicone tit. "Mrs Popular" is a nice rejoinder to the older Sour Jazz song with the opposite gender assignment. Mr Ratboy just can't resist dueling with those horns.
Is Sour Jazz the last true rock and roll band left in New York? Hopefully not but they're among only a handful entitled to turn out the lights when they eventually leave. The spirit of Bowery ghosts past lives on in these songs. The Jazz are way tighter than the (old) Dolls but every bit a bunch of trashy rock and roll tarts, albeit with better dress sense. Manhattan lyrical references abound and are probably mandatory.
"American Seizure" doesn't stake out any new ground but there's something reassuring in that. Hope the rumoured Aussie tour becomes fact. –
The Barman
1/2
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ROCK & ROLL
LIGGER - Sour Jazz (Acetate
Records)
The dictionary definition of ligger has more to do with fishing tackle than the
one most rock and roll people recognise, which pertains to hanging around backstage
sampling whatever the lifetsyle (or rider) has to offer. If, as the album title
infers, New York City's Sour Jazz see themselves as fringe-dwelling detritus
on the lower reaches of The Mainstream Music Industry's guest list, it might
be time for A & R types to shine their light wider and bump 'em up to star
status.
This should be the album to make people listen. It rocks, rolls and damn-well swings like a collection of Puerto Rican chicks' g-strings on a breezy Manhattan fire escape washline in June. It respects no demarcation lines of style, occupying its own curious turf where the remnants of New Wave butt heads with '70s NY rock and (vaguely) jazz. It's witty too and rocks in its own sometimes slinky, often rumbuctuous way.
Vocalist Lou Paris ("Mr Popular") is still doing "New Values" Iggy better than The Stooge himself. Mr Ratboy is throwing up shards of gritty guitar goodness that would curl Uri Geller's tuning fork (witness: "Rock & Roll Star"). Splat and Mark are a singular engine room of V8 proportion on drums and bass respectively, with the ability to get rawk-ous or slinky, as required. Most importantly, the songs are as good as any Sour Jazz has laid down, and made me want to revisit the other albums (the expansively titled "Lost for Life" and "No Values", I kid you not!)
The whole package carries a big fat sticker that declares it was produced by Daniel Rey, one of the happening names in the world of pan pots and sliders who's worked with the Ramones, Richard Hell, the Ig, Gluecifier, Ronnie Spector and Keith Richards, among others. Sticker or not, it sounds fantastic.
Vocally speaking, Mr Popular's Mr Pop stylings are fairly all-pervading, but if there are times like "Downtime in Midtown" - where it sounds like the Iggster's sattelite-TV is down and he's ducked back to Manhattan for the day to check on his stock options in person - there are just as many songs that broaden the soundscape. The "I'm Bored" flashbacks (as cool as they are) ultimately pale against the self-assertion of tunes like "Nowhere to Hide" and "King Me". Even on "Panzer", where Lou (Paris) undeniably channels the alter ego of Jim (Osterberg) - there's the buzzing of synths/theremins and free jazz trombone and sax to push the boundaries somewhere past the end of the Brooklyn line.
Seems every NYC band I listen to (Kevin K, Dictators, Sonny Vincent) has a song about the unwanted aspects of Big Apple "urban renewal" (that's town planner talk for fucking the character out of a place). The Sours take a similar tack on "14th & Beat Street", although smack also seems to get a going over for its impact on the human landscape.
That's not to
infer Sour Jazz are po-faced Soho bo-hos, cowering in darkened cafes planning
the demise through firebombing of Starbucks. 'Fun' is the operative word
in the Sour Jazz modus operandi and quietly reflective moments are the
exception rather than the rule . "Downtime in Midtown" is one
of these and sits in the middle like an oasis of relative calm. It's immediately
dispelled by "That's Cool Too", which is one of the the rocking-est
cuts on the album. –
The Barman
1/2
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