Detroit Rebellion – Deitroit Rebellion (Ramp Media Lab)
Stripped down straight into chug-a-lug modern blues, why modern? Its just bounce forward voice and guitar to start with sure (like passing a ragged old house and hearing the tail end of a CSN+Y acoustic jam), but the modern is in the heart, the atmosphere.
This is a soundtrack for long days of hard work and introspection, solitary journeys through the hours. A world of blurred roads and untrusting housewives peering from windows at you, trapped in the heat and your job and your thoughts. And then..
This music..
This simple strong stuff.
Saves you just a little.
These are stories that don’t always have a happy ending; sometimes the only redemption is in the telling, the sweet shrug and the moving on. Then again these are also stories that have a quirky wry sense of hope, a push, and a nudge, and a casual grin in the right direction.
Imagine the intricate moods and arrangements of the Violent Femmes early songs, condensed into this one guitar, this one singer, how strange it is that you find yourself wanting to dance silly crazy as if you are at some punk cowboy club.
There is subtle protest, more observation than angst, there is the slight take on the love song, detached but sincere and utterly captivating. There are possible confessions and there are secrets possibly revealed, but they are all wound tightly into the music.
For something so sparse, the rewards in listening to this are infinite.
A wonderful discovery.
Hear tracks and thoughts from this collection on the NBT podcast very soon
NBT Independent Music 