| Sounds Like | Matthew Boney (vocals, lead guitar, piano), Jeff Simmons (vocals, guitar, laptop, stylo and xylophones), Chris Hutton (drums), Alan Singley (keys), and various wildly-talented friends/collaborators give us a blazing, white-hot, 12-track piece of American music; American like ‘70s Dylan (see: Street Legal), American like delta blues, like Big Star and Wilco and Tom Petty and the Boss himself.
But where Bruce and his E. Street boys go for the straight-up, W.N. go for the straight up with the crooked, the sideways swingin’, and—sometimes—the totally effing cracked. This is avant-country, tripped-out folk, and weirdo ballads. It’s anthems, but it’s anthems set squarely in absurd-as-hell 2008. (If you catch some epic White Album vibe from this, you’re not off base.)
Behold the NEW psychedelic rock. Everything is over. Everything is old. Everything is broken. Wooden Nickle are the new guys. Behold the future.
...like some kind of mutant avant-country Velvet Underground; big, majestic Crazy Horse/punk Dylan stompers; puddles of freaky abstract psychedelia oozing through the cracks; creaky, abandoned-sounding folk and epic electro-swamp boogie—right up there with Castanets, Six Organs, and the White Album's weirder cuts. (Look up "Wooden Nickle guitar playing, circa summer 2007" in the Encyclopedia of Universal Cosmic Truth and it'll say something like: "Riffs snap like baby rattlesnakes … chicken-scratch pickin' … 'holy crap dude!' says audience member … enraptured string-bending … composure = totally lost … distortion heaven … livin' it.") Live, singer/guitarist Matt Boney, drummer Chris Hutton, and guitarist/laptopist/singer Jeff Simmons do all this and more. "More" meaning: They let it BLEED. "More" meaning: Matt's guitar screams out feedback like an eagle while new ground is won and taken on the sweaty, blistering rock 'n' roll battlegrounds; Hank Williams homage is done as howling, high plains indierock. The quiet parts are hauntingly engaging; the loud parts feel like pure open-road FREEDOM. It's a spirited, crowded, authentic burst of energy, passionate intent, and love for each other, the crowd, and the honest soul of music. As says Simmons, the two key elements here are integrity and truth. And when both feel this good, and cry out this loud, you'll be glad the secret's now busted wide open. |
The Amazing and Nearly Extinct---- Red Boney ----...
