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Reviews

Six Gun Lullaby — Six Gun Lullaby
(Philistine Records FTP002, 2007, CD)

by Jon Davis, Published 2008-01-01

Six Gun Lullaby Cover art

I’m the last person who would insist on bands adhering to standard instrumentation, but when I listen to this one, I hear a sound that’s tinny and kind of wimpy – and wimpy is the last thing they want to be. It’s abrasive punkish rock, but much of the time the lack of a bass instrument sucks the impact right out of the music. You can do a lot with two guitarists (both of them singing) and a drummer, but smacking the listener in the chest really isn’t one of them. In their bio, they tout this low end emptiness as a deliberate artistic choice that is key to their vision, but it is in fact their chief flaw. The Doors never had a bassist, but they had the good sense to either hire a sideman or toss in a keyboard bass. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs can sort of make it work by concentrating a charismatic singer and compelling songs (though I think they’d be better off with a bass as well); with neither of those virtues to tip the balance, Six Gun Lullaby is left lacking. The male-female vocal interplay seems reminiscent of Exene and John Doe of X, though far from copycat, and the quality of the singing ranges from effective to annoying. There are moments of good songwriting but nothing that brings me back to listen again. Still, I’ll give them props for making this kind of music in Nashville.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 35, 2007 releases

Related artist(s): Six Gun Lullaby

More info
http://sixgunlullaby.bandcamp.com/album/smash-your-records

 

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