Apache Dropout – s/t LP (Family Vineyard)
WOW. Indiana-based trio, claiming past actions in John Wilkes Booze and Lord Fyre, wastes no time in creating a monster of drug-fueled ‘60s psych and hambone R&B, a living tribute to the thousands of teenage ghosts and dead dreams which were born and quickly faded in the split level garages of suburban homes in the Vietnam era. Whatever these guys were working up to in previous endeavors, they let loose of it here – really hard – and come up from the dirt with the best example I’ve heard in years of this sort of red-eyed, blaring rock ‘n’ roll: better than the Reigning Sound or other Cartwright projects excepting the Oblivians, better than Thee Oh Sees (obvies), better than Pierced Arrows, as good as the Cheater Slicks. Years and years of alien subcutaneous seedlings come busting out of every crevice here, like the Stephen King segment in Creepshow, and cover this truthful, soul-bound material with obscene, green fuzz, connecting Dead Moon to Roky to the New York Dolls to “Cream Puff War.” By the time they reach the stomper “God Bless You Johan Kugelberg,” you begin to realize that maybe you’ve been on this trip with these guys for however many years you’ve been in the game. Sorry I have to quantify it for you like this – it doesn’t have an In the Red logo on the back – so I’m spelling it out for you: this is the real shit, undiluted and strange and bleeding raw. (http://family-vineyard.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
