Darkness Hides A Million Kind of Sins:Waco Bros; Country Clash vs City Clash

Crushed Like Stupid Dreams to Make Cheap Wine

Years ago I took a vacation to cloudy Reykjavik, which sits in the North Atlantic equidistant from Europe and the US. Wandering down the main streets I couldn't help but notice punks, flower children wandering around as though I was in some sort of time warp. Maybe it was timing and there happened to be a revival of Hair going on then. Or maybe it was all those hot dogs I was living on at the time were making me hallucinate. It seems somehow that Iceland is a sort of place where a punk band could decide to do a polka album or have a clarinet solos on their records and people wouldn't bat an eye. I do in fact own an Icelandic language Calypso album. But here in the US crossing the genre streams can be frowned upon, a violation of integrity, or seen as cultural theft. I personally don't overthink these things and try to judge music based on its quality or at least its uniqueness. And I like it when musicians stick their necks out and explore new things.

Waco Brothers are an offshoot of the English Punk/Country/Calypso/Folk Rock collective the Mekons by Jon Langford. I have a great love for the Mekons, who have put out some great intelligent records in their day and also happen to be a highly entertaining (and funny) live act. I saw them in CBGB's about a million years ago about the time of their Country themed Fear and Whiskey album and had a great time. I thought one of my friends met a girl there, but later on I found out what really happened. The bar was packed and someone passed out standing up and he was propping her up, afraid that if he moved, she would have fallen down and cracked her head. I guess it was about that time when they began their Western shift. Eventually that move culminated in the full bore insurgent country of the Wacos and a Chicago residency. The Clash as shit-kickers. West Texas vs West Jamaica (Sandanista!) A neat mix of genre with left wing politics.

Do You Think About Me? is probably not their best album but is an eminently fun and listenable excursion.
Sometimes the album almost sounds like a spoof, but on closer inspection the songs are real and very personal. The eponymous opener is a big blowsy anthemic sing-a-long country tune and impossible not to appreciate. On this one the rowdy lead vocals are by Dean Schlabowske. Jonboy Langford follows with lead on a passionately aggressive version of Neil Young's Revolution Blues. Probably my favorite moment on the record.

Vote For Me Or I Will Shoot Your Dog, Ya Varmint

Wickedest City In The World is a zany winner, a song that I fantasize is really about my own hometown. (It could be) Feel free to do the same. Mandolinist Tracey Dear does a bang-up job on this tune as he does on the similar Napa Valley. The ten songs here are all top shelf, notably Deano's raucous Hard Times and the pedal steel and blue collar narrative of South Bend. Mark Durante's steel guitar really shines also on You Know Who. Langford's It's Gotta Be Someone is reminds me a lot of the Band--an excellent ballad, as is the plaintive traditional sounding ballad Arizona Rose.

The album concludes with the Dylanesque Frightened. A poignant moving ballad that is another high note on the record. Overall an album with lyrical depth that is also easy to swallow musically. The record is on the Chicago label Bloodshot, which has a lot of cool records for sale that are in a similar vein to the Wacos. It's nice to see this sort of movement away from the glitzy Conservative commercialism of modern country music, looking ahead but also backwards to the great country artists of the past. Definitely worth checking out.