The Willowz - Chautauqua

The Willowz
Chautauqua (Dim Mak, 2007)
Grade: B

The Willowz - "Beware"
The Willowz - "Nobody"
The Willowz - "Waiting to Fall"

I've spent most of my music critic career hanging out with qualifiers. For instance, so-and-so is "post-hardcore" or such-and-such is "twee-pop with an alt-country twang," etc. However, I've never really said any single band was "rock 'n roll," until today.

The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, shit, even Pico are all rock 'n roll bands, and it turns out that The Willowz are definitely a rock 'n roll band. On their third album, Chautauqua, they get things right and really deliver a solid record.

The album starts off roaring, but then trails off at the end to explore more mellow movements - and I'm okay with that. There are even a few mostly-psychedelic yet pseudo-southern rock moments that also bring out another subtle nuance of the band's willingness to get dirty with their bad selves.

The drums are big, the guitars are big and the attitude (excuse me, 'tude) is, well, big. Surprisingly, this doesn't make me think the album is over-the-top, in fact, it just kills it when it needs to. Furthermore, if the band can escape the soon-to-come Brian Jonestown Massacre comparisons, they might just make a run for it.

"Beware" is currently my favorite track, full of late-60s psychedelic bombast and smooth moves, the song may just be the perfect anthem for a stoner summer. Yeah, that's right, I said it, summer.

Buy the album on Emusic.
The Willowz on MySpace
(Ian Anderson) *100th Post!