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MOJO
February 2009
Five Dollar Priest (Bang Records) 3 stars
Pulpy noir thrills from New York sleaze supergroup.
A gleefully profane poet who slithers to a Burroughsian beat, Ron Ward used to front Big Apple sleaze-a-billies Speedball Baby alongside Heavy Trash's Matt Verta-Ray (who produced this album). His latest project finds Ward collaborating with a host of New York underbelly luminaries-Jon Spencer abusing his theremin, James Chance blowing vicious sax, Bob Bert manning the traps-for a guttural, sin drenched set that plays out like a Hubert Selby novel scored by seamy subterranean garage noise. The group stir up an agreeably discordant riot, all bequiffed riffs and torrents of free-jazz chaos; Ward meanwhile, is on grimly hilarious form, spieling tales of lurid menace about towns "full of piss and broken hearts" ,where every character is "a few tourette's shy of a syndrome". Five Dollar Priest are a perfectly perverse treat. - Stevie Chick
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