07.31.06

What’s old is new: Review of Gas Money

Posted in some albums we done liked others we ain't - July 31st, 2006 at 10:13 am by Mimi

Gas Money – 22 Dollars

Another country band with a horrible website—SHOCKER! [It's still not as bad as some, but I swear a half dozen web savvy folks could revolutionize the Nashville online scene.—Cricket]

I have been a little lax lately with album reviews since I have been out of town all but about three days of July.

Me: So, what should I listen to?
Cricket: Like I care.
*much consternation that we appear to have lost the album I want to review*
Me: *listens to an album that sucks* Can I just review Chris LeDoux or something?
Cricket: You can review Wayne Hancock or Bob Wills or Chris LeDoux, whatever you want.
Me: Oh! This band has a song called “Nashville Hotel,” let’s drop the needle then.

“I’m smokin’ Jim Beam and I’m drinkin’ Lucky Strike” is the first lyric that hit me as I was doing something else. Cricket’s gonna love this for that lyric alone. [She's right, I love it, and not just for that lyric.—Cricket] It’s from the song “Gatlin Gun Blues” which has a nice, old-timey by way of Lost Highway feel to it, but the sound production drowns out the vocals a little for my (snobby) tastes.

“Still playin’ for drink tickets and twenty-two dollars” laments Fred Stucky in the refrain of (shockingly) “Drink Tickets”. There’s a complex, layered sound going on this track that surprised me as I listened to it the first time. Not only do they layer the instrumentation, but they have a couple vocal loops working almost at cross-purposes making the sound (hopefully) purposefully discordant. It feels like three a.m. after spending eight hours in the bar, jangly, wired, and exhausted.

“All Alone in My Honky-Tonk World” is a straightforward rocky country song sung and played with bar band thunking guitar and vocals edging toward shouting. The appeal direct, shouting out seminal country singers with a tip of the hat to how they changed the singer’s life (just like they did all of ours, right?) “I heard Whiskey River and I knew my race was run”—yeah, exactly.

“Pretty Bar Girl” reminds me in some ways of Whiskeytown with an Uncle Tupelo vocal track; the theme is sort of tragic in the way working crappy food service jobs is, but there is a slight edge of hope—maybe an vocal optimism—that is absent in Whiskeytown because Ryan’s voice is so open and depressing all by itself. There’s some dissonance between the creepy desperation of the lyric and they way they’re sung here combined with a weird, plucky beat underpinning the vocals. This is very much an alt-country song.

I wouldn’t endorse every track on this record, but it’s solid and I like Fred Stucky’s voice. Next up: Bob Wills or Chris LeDoux, fuck it.

[I wouldn't endorse, every track either, but I'm guessing I loved more of it the miss Mimi did. Y'all should check it out. Our beloved CDBaby has it, which means you can actually give a little of it a listen. Also I think it has the best album cover ever. I wish every single song on the album reached the greatness level of the album cover.—Cricket]

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