Various Artists F.T.W. – A Tribute to Gideon Smith Scorpius Triangle Records
F.T.W. is an improbable, yet not unworthy, tribute album for underground Southern rock icon (I guess I can use that term now, right?) Gideon Smith. It seems as though Gid’s inspirational sage and hustle has influenced a whole bunch of Dixie Damned disciples and they’ve gathered to growl and howl their way through some of Gid’s finest songs, paying homage to a man whose bearded prowess is as potent as the music he makes. Now, I haven’t the foggiest clue who any of the bands on this compilation are or what swamps and caves they crawled out of — we’re dealing with some serious subterranean subjugation here — but judging by the 16 interpretations on display, Gid’s cosmic biker boogie lends itself to all sorts of twisted variations, like death metal, doom, rockabilly, and even some reggae. It’s all about the deep and dark for me, though, because Gid’s music has always pushed the heavy, ghostly, psych-rock boundaries, so the contributions from Ossastorium (“Ghost Rider”), Tremble Saith Thy Master (“My Darling Black Rose”), Dear Druid (“Lay Me Down in Ecstasy”), Trocarion Fate (“The Witch’s House”), Witch Bone Ash (“Blood and Fire”), and Dannros Systems of Romance (“Dionysus Child”) are the obvious stand-outs. Biggest disappointments, however, go to Red All Over and Bill Carroll for mistreating two of my favourite Gideon Smith songs, “Draggin’ the River” and “Outerspace Girl,” respectively, and the fact that no one covered “Shimmering Rain” and “Blacklight Wizard Poster” is a real bummer. Anyway, good on Gideon for this benchmark and, as always, in keeping with his outlaw spirit, Fuck The World, Forever Two Wheels, and Fight To Win.
Listen to “Dionysus Child” by Dannros Systems of Romance from F.T.W.!
San Diego’s Dirty Sweet belong to an emerging group of rock n’ roll revolutionaries, gentlemen prospectors clad in suspenders and dirty boots, returning home from the Gold Rush where they successfully panned along the banks of the country blues river for brilliant Southern rock nuggets. Along with contemporaries The Parlor Mob, Priestbird, The Main Street Gospel, Weird Owl, and (on a popular scale) Kings of Leon, they take the same trail blazed by The Rolling Stones, Cactus, The Allman Brothers, and The Black Crowes to usher in a new wave of forty-niner dust n’ soul known simply as mustache rock. American Spiritual, Dirty Sweet’s second album, is a slice of electric Americana with its fuzzy sights set squarely on the life and times of a country on the tipping point. They’ve even ratcheted up the tension this time around; where the songs on their first album, Of Monarchs and Beggars, were more homely and laid back, the songs on American Spiritual are more aggressive and boss, and come at you like an outlaw posse at high noon (dig “Get Up, Get Out,” “Please Beware,” “Kill or Be Killed,” and “Crimson Cavalry” for the loudest examples). However, this album isn’t without its laid back moments, and songs like “Star-Spangled Glamour,” “An Empty Road,” and “You Don’t Try” are prime examples of Dirty Sweet’s mastery of the front porch, sun-drenched ballad, while the title track is a Gothic gospel number that will haunt you just right. Smile a toothless grin, my friends, because mustache rock lives.
Check out the video for “Marionette” from American Spiritual!
Hell, why stop there? Check out the video for “You’ve Been Warned” from American Spiritual as well!
Back when I wrote about Burning Love (#27), I promised you’d hear more about Quest for Fire. Well, here we are. Rising from the ashes of Canadian punk icons The Deadly Snakes and Cursed, Quest for Fire is a serious force of psychedelic garage mayhem and once this bastard starts spinning, no one is safe from the sparks that come spitting out from the smoking amplifiers. These sons of guns don’t need to go on a quest for fire because they’ve already found it, and between their pedigree and their energy, they’ve managed to release an infectious, fuzzy, dirty rock n’ roll record that will surely please the purist that lives deep inside of you.
Various Artists
Dirty Sweet
#18 Quest for Fire – S/T