Formats
SB025 - LP
N/ASB025CD - CD
61689200736
Details
Skybucket Records joins forte for distro, and the first release is the new album from Forte favourites The Dexateens, their last album Hardwire Healing got some killer UK press: Each successive Dexateens release has seen the group mellowing, and SINGLEWIDE is as easygoing as can be. In many ways it seems more like California surfer folk rock than the roustabout Alabama southern rock for which the band is known. That's not to say that twang isn't still a big part of the vocals and the guitars, but the thrashing stomp of old has been replaced by mostly acoustic guitars, shuffled drums, and relaxing introspection. McPherson still delivers each line with some nasal drawl, but the guitars fuzzy gently or ring with texture rather than blitz away as they once did. Opener "Down Low" sees the lead guitar matching McPherson's delicate, mellow vocals note for note. The slow picked banjo of "New Boy" adds optimism while McPherson somberly asserts he doesn't want to be "standin' here in Mobile writin' someone else's songs." Only the closer "Can You Whoop It" rocks out with epic blues of the past and even has its slow-burning moments tempered with humorous cliches about southern life. SINGLEWIDE is a cool thirty-eight minutes of alt country with appeal for both the southern rock crowd and laid-back summer slackers. Vinyl is deluxe, limited, and quite possibly going to be a few weeks later than the CD. you will hum these songs, and shake your booty!!
recorded at the Beech House by Mark Nevers in Nashville, TN produced by the Dexateens and Mark Nevers JOHN SMITH | GUITAR, VOCALS ELLIOTT MCPHERSON | GUITAR, VOCALS MATT PATTON | BASS LEE BAINS III | GUITAR, VOCALS BRIAN GOSDIN | DRUMS Behind the record: The band is equally skilled in writing story songs in the best of the Southern oral tradition, gorgeously exemplified in ?Charlemagne? and ?The Ballad of Souls Departed.? The latter reminds us of the band?s considerable musical range as it moves from discordant banjos to tastefully blazing guitars. The entire album possesses a sense of spiritual questioning, if not actual questing. In McPherson?s vocals, especially, there is an ever-present hound dog whine of tragic resignation. Certainly, there is an added quiver of disappointment in ?Granddaddy?s Mouth,? but also hope for a future yet to be prophesied in ?Spark? and ?Hang On.? Overall, Singlewide feels like sunrise after a long, dark night rockin? in the garage, the bar, the bowery, or the stadium. The title track ?Singlewide? illustrates that all of us may be stuck in the trailer park, but some of us are looking up at the stars. The final track on the album ?Can You Whoop It?? is an assertion posing as a question. With the assistance of Dave Berman of the Silver Jews, who provides the robotic ?yes? to the backwoods version of the question Can You Dig It?, the song is sonic ego affirmation for all us small-town, good old boys, who feel condescended to and emotionally outgunned. There is not a little lo-fi irony at work here with the lyrical persona who claims to like both ?Ronnie Dio? and ?Vaseline,? but, all that aside, the band?s fierce guitars return fire for those of us who feel like we have just had our porch lights shot out. Rest assured, there are answers to the dim, hazy questions raised by Singlewide. And the Dexateens are just the band to sing the sun awake.
Tracks
1. Down Low
2. Caption
3. Missionary Blues
4. Spark
5. New Boy
6. Hang On
7. Trail
8. Same As It Used To Be
9. Charlemagne
10. Grandaddy?s Mouth
11. The Ballad of Souls Departed
12. Singlewide
13. Can You Whoop It
Press
press tbc, but expect reviews in MOJO, Uncut, etc