Leader Of The Pack

Just so you know, we've finally got our first "official" post up over at Barstool Mountain. If you liked our Top 100 Drinking Songs list, or just songs about drinking, that's the site for you. We'll keep is as fresh and non-skunky as possible. Check it out.

Now then.

If you're not familiar with the name Mary Weiss, you're at least tipped on The Shangri-Las, the classic "bad girls" of 60's girl groups of whom Weiss was the lead singer. You know, "Leader Of The Pack".

Weiss has a new album out, her first in...well...a really long time. Our good friends over at Norton Records figgered it was about time the world got another listen to Ms. Weiss, and, lo, it came to pass that she was paired with Greg Cartwright and the Reigning Sound on her new album "Dangerous Game". Cartwright may be more familiar to us fuddy duddy's as Greg Oblivian of, well, you know, The Oblivians. I've rambled about them before, and will do so again, to be sure.

Weiss has a voice that makes good boys squirm and nice girls say their prayers. It's been places you can only dream about, and there's kerosene in those pipes. She's still pissed, still been done wrong, and still not willing to sit back and take it. She's got what some would call an attitude problem. And we like it. Teenage riot in the adult world.

The Reigning Sound provide the perfect backdrop for Weiss' vocals. With Cartwright writing the bulk of the songs, the band layers on with organ drenched, tambourine shaking, rocknrollgaragepop. It's almost sunny, a perfect summer album for the newly broken-up and lovelorn, with a noirish heartbeat.

There's been a clutch of rebirths and comeback albums over the years, with varying degrees of success. Some sound simply rote, with a name producer at the helm attempting to breathe new life into a tired sound that has forgotten how to be hungry. "Dangerous Game" is not one of those. It's as if the past 40 years were compressed, and Weiss picks up right where she left off, all rebellion and shimmering chrome.


Mary Weiss: Don't Come Back (mp3)

Mary Weiss: Tell Me What You Want Me To Do (mp3)

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