Sometimes the best thing to do is just batten the hatches and line up the Pontiac Brothers records. There is a comfort in the warm and raucous sounds of the past, and if a first-rate band ever got a third-rate reception, it was these drunks. Everybody's favorite cliche is that they were Placemat wannabes, and I'll grant you a few moments ("Creep") that come dangerously close to hero worship. As always, though, folks ain't listening, cuz it's the Stones these guys were filching from, and if Doll Hut ain't the perfect followup to Goats Head Soup, then I'm just a middle-aged washed up drunk, looking for peace in the dusk.
Hell, I couldn't even bring up any P Brothers records on Soulseek- how's that for no respect? And this from a band that knocked out three winners in a four-year span. Tell that to Bruce Springsteen. So they loved the Stones and they loved their booze, but if the songs ain't there you're just rolling your eyes at your friend's dumb band. These guys could write. Ward Dotson did time with The Gun Club before the no-fun black leather crowd sent him packing for a good-time gig. They blew their first effort with Big Black River, but regrouping never sounded so good with Doll Hut. Fiesta en la Bibliotecha followed, and while some folks claim this is the big one, I'm still partial to their goodbye disc, Johnson, (well, partial after Doll Hut, of course), a more slickly produced slab that went for the gold and ended with a collection of classic anthems only the lonely in cluttered studio apartments ever heard. End of the Pontiac Brothers. Dotson went on to indie fame with the Liquor Giants, who paled in comparative greatness to his previous bands and had some cringe-inducing Westerbergisms that drove my cigarette intake to intolerable levels. Hey, they had some hits, but it was a softer and more calculated thing, and ain't any of those tunes gonna be confused with an Exile outtake.
So today we've got plenty of new weird subsubsubsub-rock categories, but very few straight rock bands. I'm guessing there is a Pontiac Brothers album sitting for a buck in many a shitty record store just waiting for a loving owner. Kinda like Toy Story. Next time, give that fucker a happy home, and let the love flow in both directions.
2 comments:
I saw these guys play at Bottom of the Hill in like 1994. I remember nothing. I blacked out. But the records were good. It strikes me that there aren't a lot of straight ahead rock n roll bands anymore. It's too bad. I miss music like this.
I saw him 'em at The Palace in LA opening for the Relacements. Thought they were solid fun but the Placemats' antics stole the show. I'd never seen anything like the wasted fuckups those four bastards were that night. They pulled the curtain and then Bobby and Chris ran through it and dived into the crowd- hey, maybe it was a stunt but it fooled me, and all of a sudden there were more possibilties in the world.
Post a Comment