Australia
has always been a mysterious place to me. Growing up relatively far away and
removed from anything Aussie other than Crocodile Dundee I don’t know a whole
lot about it. The country is huge geographically, and not unlike the USA seems to
be diverse from its climate, landscape, populace and music scenery. The Aussies
sure do have some cool music as evidenced by today's review.
Little Big Wolf is from Australia. Had to throw that in as if
you didn't gather that from my introductory sentence. These guys play a
brand of blues-rock seldom duplicated. It's got a rather spaghetti western
flair with a creepy vocal tone slurring together rhymes like fear loathing
around in Las Vegas.
From the get go 'Rum & Cigarettes' sets the stage with its hazy, drunken
and nonconformist attitude. "Well I rolled into town, drink in my hand,
smoke in my face cause I don't care about grace...." The music soaks you
with liquor, strangles you with smoke, and satiates you with a jazzy fusion of
swampy, psychedelic blues-rock.
The album plays through quick although the songs are not
fast. Twanging in just over 30 minutes, it's an album worthy of an immediate
repeat to confirm how extremely badass it just made you feel. Like a soundtrack
to a Danny Trejo movie or something, the album puts a spell on you knowing you
aren't really as rugged and tough as the theme of the music suggests. The spell
lasts throughout the entire record.
Perfect Saturday afternoon drink’n and drug’n music. Let the
dust blow across the rotting wooden deck while you squint through a pair of
smudged aviator glasses and imagine the songs are about you. Let the
sarcastic lyrical poetry float into your mind and enjoy being the Wolf for
once, even if you’re a little imaginative one.
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