Helicopter Helicopter – Wild Dogs With X-Ray Eyes (2003)

Helicopter Helicopter - Wide Dogs with X-Ray Eyes
Helicopter Helicopter
Wild Dogs With X-Ray Eyes
2003

Helicopter Helicopter starts off Wild Dogs With X-Ray Eyes with “Helicopter Fight Song.” Doing so makes it clear that aren’t venturing far from the slickly produced power pop style they refined on their previous effort, By Starlight. What may shock some listeners familiar with the band’s first few records is the apparent positivity of the track. It’s hard to imagine that the band who penned the lines “I can’t stand to see blue babies/Gangrene crawling up their sides” could turn around and write “How can you say that none of this is really worth it?/When we’ve already won.” They did. Don’t panic. There is still plenty of talk of ghosts, lasers, hatchets, devils and stoning your friends on the rest of the album.

Helicopter Helicopter bring back a bit of grit to the proceedings this time around. Where the songs By Starlight had been polished to gem-like perfection, Wild Dogs With X-Ray Eyes incorporates a touch more of the rawness found in their early work. No one is going to confuse any songs on this record with “Gay Porno” or “Please Please Tito.” That’s not what this record is about. It’s about achieving balance. Dark and memorable. Hooks with teeth. “Harsh Light” and “The Devil” are among the group’s best work. The acoustic “Pine Trees On Fire” draws in the listener with its starkness. “Talk The Flyer Down” and “1234” are power pop gold.

Wild Dogs With X-Ray Eyes would be Helicopter Helicopter’s last album. The band left behind an impressive body of work.

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Jenny Dee & Several Men Of Mystery – Jenny Dee & Several Men Of Mystery (2013)

jennt dee several men of mystery
Jenny Dee & Several Men Of Mystery
Jenny Dee & Several Men Of Mystery
2013

Three country tunes from Jenny Dee and some of her very talented friends?* Yes, please. Opening track “You Had It All” is a duet with Roy Sludge. I’m pretty sure I knew this one was going to be great before I even heard it.** “Never” has suitably weary and worn backing vocals from Bill Janovitz and Chris Toppin. It’s always a treat when those two team up. Also, I’m a sucker for a weepy lapsteel. The EP closes with Jenny Dee & Several Men Of Mystery tearing it up on “Looking For Clues.” Jenny notes that this song is a reworked tune from her gig with The Downbeat Five. Given the song’s fiery nature, it’s certainly not hard to believe. The band really cuts loose here. Sometimes sad songs can make you happy.

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* Duke Levine, Bill Janovitz, Chris Toppin, Ed Valauskas, Tom Arey, Roy Sludge, Matt Pynn, and Ben Zecker? Good, Lord. Even Eric Salt gets in on the action, playing the tambourine on “Looking For Clues.”

** It is.

Gozu – The Fury Of A Patient Man (2013)

gozu fury patient man
Gozu
The Fury Of A Patient Man
2013

What do you call a record with walls of solid riffs built on a foundation of heavy sludge? If you’re Gozu, you call it The Fury Of A Patient Man and you adorn it with memorable melodies, hand-claps, falsetto backing vocals and harmonies of the vocal and guitar variety. This is an album full of hooks and humor that never loses sight of the fact that its sole purpose on this planet it to melt your face via your ear canals. From the killer opening riff of “Bald Bull” to the closing, distorted gasps of “The Ceaseless Thunder Of Surf”, the guys in Gozu show off their many and varied ways to pull off said face-melting. Sometimes they do it with a soulful vocal (“Ghost Wipe”, “Snake Plissken”). Other times they hit you with majestic guitar lines (“Traci Lords”) or thrashtastic runs (“Charles Bronson Pinchot”). No matter their choice in auditory facial liquefaction tools, Gozu always get the job done.

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