Album Evaluate
The Bobby Lees – Bellevue (Ipecac Recordings)
CD/Vinyl/Cass/DL
Out now
Does the third album by ‘American psychos’, the ‘wild and uninhibited’ blended gender guitar band The Bobby Lees simply show they the best feral punk rock’n’roll group within the USA? Or are they the subsequent underground-to-mainstream band in a Nirvana / White Stripes kinda fashion? Asks Ged Babey for Louder Than Struggle.
I like this band. They’re younger and they’re ‘punk rock’ (Or ‘unbridled rock’n’roll’ should you desire…)
For those who thought Amyl & the Sniffers have been the Return of Correct Punk Rock’n’Roll…
For those who nonetheless can’t perceive why Jon Spencer & the Blues Explosion weren’t as ‘massive as Nirvana’….
For those who think about the best imaginary band ever could be made up of members of the Gun Membership, Lifeless Kennedys, Pixies and Gap…
Then, you’re able to welcome The Bobby Lees into your life and for Bellevue to take up residence in your stereo.
Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, Henry Rollins…these are only a few of the punk icons who’ve proven assist for Woodstock, NY based mostly band The Bobby Lees. Sam Quartin [vocals, guitar], Macky Bowman [drums], Nick Casa [guitar], and Kendall Wind [bass] — make music that’s punk in spirit and soul; unfettered and resolutely sincere. To say their sound is wild and untethered is an understatement. It’s the form of aural exorcism any listener can faucet into, one thing that struck a chord with Henry Rollins who introduced them to Ipecac Recordings the place Mike Patton and Greg Werckman signed them.
Tom Crossley, from London band The Phobics posted the Dig Your Hips video with the phrases: “That is what occurs whenever you merge Clean Technology with Blister within the Solar and California Uber Alles” encapsulating my precise ideas.
I’ve been listening to Bellevue for a month now and it’s firmly embedded in my private ‘endlessly’ playlist of American Greats – Dolls, Circle Jerks, L7, Babes In Toyland – my snap-me-out-of-it. once I dine it’s for the wall that I set a spot mood-list.
This album is magnificent: primal, rural, feral, rock’n’roll. (I wished to keep away from calling it ‘punk rock’ because the time period has turn into so degraded and related to issues just like the Exploited enjoying at Butlins in 2022…) If that is punk rock, it’s that first style of American Hardcore – DI enjoying Richard Hung Himself in Suburbia…. crossed with the Intercourse Beat of the Gun Membership and the self-exorcism of Gap.
With their clever and considerate tune writing, The Bobby Lees comply with their instincts as musicians and mates, working collectively to create the songs that may ultimately kind Bellevue. The sound is gritty, minimalist and visceral, every tune is an ode to the misfits.
Vocalist and lyricist Sam all the time felt like she wasn’t adequate to begin a band, till her inventive spirit could possibly be curtailed no extra. “I felt like one thing was consuming me alive inside, and I needed to get it out in a inventive method or die…”I suppose the ache of NOT doing it turned larger than the worry of doing it, so I had no alternative however to strive.”
Sam Quartin, the vocalist is/was an actress in critically acclaimed, gritty art-house motion pictures from what I perceive from a little bit of googling. This makes me a tiny bit suspicious… Is she ‘role-playing’ within the band? Effectively, should you take heed to the sooner work, watch just a few movies… reside footage on Youtube… learn her interviews… No. I don’t suppose so. This can be a genuinely wild and fucked-up r’n’r band who can play and whip up a storm.
That’s to not say Quartin doesn’t get into character vocally on songs the place the lyrics demand it. Little Desk is sung from the viewpoint of a subservient lady and Hollywood Junkyard a disillusioned and burnt-out fame-seeker.
Within the US replace of Breaking Glass fashion video for the latter they go to nice pains to indicate they aren’t a malleable, manufactured, picture acutely aware band…. or is that each one a double-bluff!
Ever since I noticed the Drive video I used to be fascinated with the Bobby Lees.
The look is like an American Gothic for 2022 – the setting a petroleum station transformed into tattoo parlour. The garments – dungarees and ‘gasoline station attendant’ stylish. The vibe, My Identify Is Earl meets Breaking Unhealthy fashion Americana. The US of A that us Brits who’ve by no means been there think about in our TV-saturated fever desires.
The album cowl too is so untypical of an ‘up and coming American Rock’n’Roll band’ – an enormous fats hog and the dishevelled singer lined in pigshit and dirt after a wrestle with the fucker.
The music takes in jazz, blues, no-wave, cinema music in addition to grunge, surf and punk.
Seesawing forwards and backwards with manic depth, “Monkey Thoughts” explodes with a head-crushing hook. Sam expands, “It’s about your head speaking to you too loudly or being imply to your self”
“Unusual Days” reveals one other facet of the group altogether. In between menacingly bass-y piano, Sam’s vocals crack and crest over the minimal soundscape as she muses about “a Murakami dream.”
As feverish and nihilistic because the music can at occasions appear, there’s all the time a glimmer of hope on the core of every tune. “I named the album Bellevue as a result of once I hear again, I hear somebody going by that stuff, who’s now capable of snicker about it and have enjoyable re-telling the tales,” says Sam. “It’s a reminder for me that probably the most painful and intense issues I’m going by find yourself being probably the most rewarding creatively.” When requested what she hopes the response to Bellevue shall be, she replies: “Once I hear one thing I like or connect with, I really feel much less alone and I get some hope to maintain going. It will get me out of my very own story. My solely hope could be that possibly this file does that for another person”
Numerous the songs have little echoes of different songs: Have You Seen A Lady – the Pixies ‘Cactus‘. Loss of life Practice simply sounds prefer it must be by the Gun Membership. Unusual Days and Little Desk have the darkish cocktail jazz vibe of Lydia Lunchs Queen of Siam. Hollywood Junkyard should be a title not less than that Courtney Love rejected. A Blues Explosion affect pervades the entire album following Jon Spencer producing the earlier album ‘Pores and skin Go well with’ – additionally glorious however missing the number of Bellevue.
You have got an urge to take heed to White Blood Cells the second you’ve completed listening to Bellevue for the third time in a row, simply to remind your self that Jack white was by no means truly this good and this constant when he was within the storage at this age.
The one factor not fairly proper with Bellevue is the working order – the incredible cowl of the Waterboys ‘Be My Enemy’ ought to have closed proceedings as a substitute of a throwaway Thriller Theme Tune – a messy surf instro hucklebuck that summons the ghost of Dick Dale. The majestically scathing Greta Van Faux ought to’ve been monitor two… and so forth.
The Bobby Lees are simply too good for the mainstream. Too uncooked, too wild, too feral… however intelligent sufficient to tease the money-men and taste-makers who know there may be nonetheless a large potential marketplace for a band like this.
Personally, I hope the Bobby Lees stay probably the most inspirational cult-level, gut-instinct, kick-ass band – keep completely happy and wholesome – however I worry that they might go up a stage, onto the enterprise treadmill and tear themselves aside.
Purchase/Hear from alternative of retailers
All phrases by Ged Babey
