Monday, February 05, 2007

Deloris - Ten Lives

Last week was obviously far, far too large. BDO sideshows, Neko, Newsom, Smog. Etc. We apologise for the interruption to service. It won't happen much.

Here's something good:

Deloris - Ten Lives (Dot Dash)

So these Deloris chaps have been around for a long time (since '99, apparently) without jumping up and down in front of my earholes. Shame, that, because they're great!

Ten Lives was last year's release from the band, a kinda messy group with Marcus Teague in the middle writing the songs. In fact, the band barely existed as of recording time for the album, with Teague playing pretty much everything on the record, as well as his usual singing frontman role.

Teague's singing, in fact, is one of the first stumbling blocks with Deloris. It's distinctive, not by any means tuneless but certainly limited, a little nasal but with low-register body. It's most exposed on Down the Mountain, a fragile ballad given a strained, exposed air by the vocal cracks and uncertainties. His voice is undistinguished in a good way; a blue-collar voice, it belongs to a rocker, not to a singer.

And as a result, rocking is what Deloris do best. Loup Garou has had some JJJ airplay and deservedly so. It's got a rollicking guitar riff, played live with panache by Anthony Petrucci (of Souls on Board) and kick-drum-heavy drive through an great verse-verse-verse structure, building tension, hitting all the pedals until three minutes into the song the chords rise under a shouted "Loup Garou" and we're in a chorus, of sorts. And then a jam outro into an abrupt stop - bang! Rockin'.

[mp3 - 5.6M] Deloris - Loup Garou

Just as good as this masterpiece, if more conventional, is Everything Ever, the album hitting its straps at track three. This is indie-rock-anthem perfection, reminding me most recently of Holychord by Dappled Cities Fly. Soaring vocals over a bounce groove with just enough stop-start to keep the tune interesting, first verse quiet, the rest loud. Beautifully done.

[mp3 - 6.4M] Deloris - Everything Ever

Scratch that indie-rock itch, go on, with Deloris.

ADDENDUM: Fixed those crappy links. Let's try these guys instead.

[buy Ten Lives direct from dot dash]
[visit Deloris' official site and their myspace]

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