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 Loteria
is a dark and savage tale, wherein our bedraggled rock n’ roll anti-hero
Bryan Small, the shadowy blooze, cooze, n’ bad nooze chasin’ sumbitch
behind flash metal-cowpunk-razor rawk sensations the Hangmen, teams
up with yet another sub-culture legend, Rane Raitsikka, and makes
strange and beautiful music with him. “Raitsikka?” you ask,
scratchin’ yer head, wondering if the fuck-in-the-mud death-blues of the
Hangmen has gone, uh, World Music, or somethin’. No, baby,
they have not. Rane used to be in Smack, and I don’t mean the
fuckin’ drug, either. Well, maybe the drug, that’s really not my bizness,
but I meant the legendary Finnish glam-punks, and when I say legendary, I
mean LEGENDARY, like Hanoi or Thunders or Pistols
or, hell, like the Hangmen. See how it works?
Besides new-skeleton in the graveyard Raitsikka, Bry’s got
Todd Haney and Angelique Congelton holding up the back line, and
between the four of ‘em, there’s enuff sweat, blood, desperation, pain,
love, terror, and forgiveness to last through 13 tracks of PURE rock
n’ roll that’s as tragic as it is glorious, as passionate as it is numb, as
street trash ugly as it is gypsy queen beautiful. If you’ve heard the
Hangmen anytime since their days as GN’R’s punkest competition in
’89, then yr ears are gonna settle into this ‘un nice and easy, as the
sounds are vintage and true to form. If ya really HAVE to, you can
name-drop Tex and her Horseheads, the Gun Club, the
Cramps, Johnny Cash, Social D, and mebbe even Motley
Crue (just a little mascara goes a long way on the right rock n roll
tramp, ya know), but all that ‘sounds like’ jazz is small-time when yr in
the realm of Small time, dig? Fact is, Bry’s gonna write lines
like “I’m a ghost, I’m a panther/I’m a deathwish, waitin’ for an answer” and
then drawl ‘em out like his tongue has gone to whisky town while a slide
guitar conjures the devil behind him pretty much until the day he finally
dies. And it’s always gonna sound painfully real, because it always WILL
be painfully real for him. Believe me, if the last time you toured in yr own
bus was 15 years ago, and half the people you knew back then are either dead
or gone straight, and the only thing keeping ya sane is the ghost of
Jeffrey Lee Pierce, some serous motherfucking rock n roll is gonna
happen.
I kinda like the ones where Bryan sounds all fractured and fucked up
the best, a little like Lou Reed and a little like a madman, songs
like glam-punk gunfighter ballad “Blood Red” (“Can’t hold back
now/I’m too far gone”) and the junkie-blooze of “She’s a Drug” (“The
gun is under my seat”) and the desperate “I Just Wanna Feel Good” (“Cuz
I’m lonely, and it’s rainin’/And I don’t wanna be dry”). But really, take
yer pick, the whole smoky, boozy mess most certainly worth the hangover or
the empty wallet or the broken heart or whatever it leaves you with. But
Loteria will leave you with SOMETHING, that much is certain, and
how many rock n’ roll records these days can promise you that? If you know
the difference between the real thing and, well, everything else, then ya
already know what to do. Hangmen ain’t meant to live this long, so
hitch a ride on this medicine train while ya still can.
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