Not long ago, teenage dirtbag Johnny de Courcy parted ways with his brothers in the Canadian stoner/doom band Black Wizard, citing a dissociation with the band and its music. You see, Johnny, underneath all that greasy hair and through all that pot smoke, is a bit of dandy, and while the follies of indiscriminate youth were best experienced through heavy electric noise, it’s now his inner Ziggy Stardust that yearns to be free. Johnny’s heart, no doubt saturated with chemical fumes inhaled at his print shop hideaway, bursts with foppish psych-pop, and the five songs on this acoustic EP move about as though Syd Barrett is dancing a jewelry box ballerina all the way to Mars. It’s an incredible turnabout, but one that suits Johnny like a fresh string of pearls, and the sweet sounding truth of his weird and whimsical ways are beautifully inspirational.
Bad Teeth has been released on cassette, but if that’s too strange a format for you to get back into, go listen to it and download it for free right here!
It’s been three years since we last heard from The Parlor Mob, whose debut album And You Were a Crow successfully cradled the fine line between mainstream exposure and underground appeal, a rock n’ roll record borne of barefoot ideals and mustache machismo that was part Led Zeppelin, part Black Crowes, and all radio play. But the New Jersey band has surfaced with their follow-up, Dogs, which, like its predecessor, should curry compliments from people on either side of the popularity divide. However, unlike And You Were a Crow, Dogs has a more commercially viable edge to it, a darker, heavier hard rock flavour, heard especially on the songs “How It’s Going to Be,” “Fall Back,” “The Beginning,” and the album’s first single, “Into the Sun,” complete with a pop-driven chorus. What Dogs lacks, however, is the hippie groove that packed And You Were a Crow full of dust and soul, and while “Hard Enough,” “Slip Through My Hands,” and “Holding On” capture some of that ol’ feel good vibe, it’s clear The Parlor Mob have kicked it into attack mode this time around. You know, Dogs could have a little more boogie for my buck, but now that Dirty Sweet have rode off into the hazy horizon, it’s The Parlor Mob or bust. And I’m not ready to go down just yet.
Backyard Babies are on an indefinite hiatus (they do say there will be another album in the future, they’re just not sure when); Dregen’s currently touring with Mike Monroe and putting out albums with Midlife Crisis, and Nicke Borg is putting out solo albums as Homeland. Borg released the four song EP Chapter 1 last year and is already back with the full-length Chapter 2, but that’s no surprise given the sleazy Swede’s penchant for penning songs. In fact, Borg, clean and sober for the first time in his life (thanks to friend and fellow rock n’ roller Mike Ness), spends most of his time now reaping commercial success by writing hit songs for teen pop stars in his native land. Anyone familiar with the last few Babies albums might have seen this kind of thing coming from Borg, as Chapter 2 presents a continuation of the kind of music found on songs like “Abandon” and “Saved By the Bell” from 2008′s self-titled album and “Roads” from 2006′s People Like People Like People Like Us. However, without the constraints placed on him by his role in a sleaze rock band, Borg stretches his acoustic styling to include orchestration (“Leaving Home”), straightforward rock songs (“No Regrets,” “Nowhereeverdevilland,” “Father of a Father”), and a duet with Camela Leierth (“All Stars”). It’s also clear that Ness’ influence not only impacted Borg’s personal life, but his life as a balladeer as well, as songs like “Alone,” “The Young Ones,” and “Heroes and Freaks” contain the country-fried, So-Cal twang n’ drive of Cheating at Solitaire and some of Social Distortion’s sun-drenched moments (there’s even a cover of “Bad Luck” included here). We might not know until the next Babies album if Borg is suffering his own midlife crisis right now or not, but before Total 13 there was “Lies” and “Kickin’ Up Dust” and “God’s Favourite,” so this kind of genuine songwriting has always existed in Borg. However, it would be awfully nice if the Babies put out another album like Total 13 so we can all forget how old we are and pretend we don’t need a Chapter 3.
Check out the video for “Leaving Home” from Chapter 2!
Johnny de Courcy
The Parlor Mob
Nicke Borg Homeland