After The Strokes fell off the Earth, and Indy bandits- Vampire Weekend monopolized all current music blogs, there hasn’t been a good old- fashioned rock band to go see. The music industry is either on its last gasp, or the desire for cum-stained dirt-rock has been forgotten. Few musicians remember what it’s like to “rock out with your cock out” in dark, smoke-filled nightclubs till the wee wee hours..
After the chaos-inflicting Oscura broke up in the late 90’s, singer/songwriter- Andrea Sicco set out to explore and refine the stark, twisted ideas he had developed and begun to test out about 1960’s British garage rock, Neil Young grunge riffs, and mod-era delta blues. Assembling top notch rhythm section- Robert Goldsmith (bass) and Jungle Jim (Drums) as My Happy Gun, Sicco slowed the old band’s spirited evil to a crawl and began to experiment more poetic-like lyrical conceits. He is forever obsessed with his typical themes of sex, death, and the devil, but here he relocates the ambiguous energy that had gone out from much of his 90’s material.
“Make it come” is my favorite track on their self-titled debut EP. The song’s based around a lead guitar riff somewhere between the Yardbirds and the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Sicco’s vocals are darker, more out-of-focus than his previous work, sounding like Scott Walker dressed up as Morrissey on Halloween through distortion pedals. It captures Sicco at his most raw and primeval.
“King of the Highway” is the band’s attempt to integrate Sicco’s new found, well-groomed vocal charm. (a grim Elvis Presley impersonation, if you will) It’s a gothic waltz in the manner of Bauhaus, or Echo and the Bunnymen crooning the blues.
My Happy Gun could be part of the rock and roll death rattle, but they will hold the flag as it's burned to the ground by this new wave of bullshit-post-indy crap. (fuck off Vampire Weekend!) For the unemployed and all night party goers, check out this band, preferably at midnight, after massive whiskey consumption. You’ll be surprised to know how good it feels to take those hands out of your pockets, and ROCK OUT again.
Sounds dope!
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