Chicken Grease

Ok.  Insane Holiday/Xmas/Whatever posts start tomorrow!  Daily posts from now 'til the end of the year!!  The very best of non-traditional Xmas music, designed to stir the soul and loins.  Followed by our world famous Best Of List.  The War on Christmas (tm) starts in less than 24 hours.  Can you handle the excitement????

But first,  let's take a few minutes to revel in the glory that is the new record, II,  from Mountain fave, Chicken Diamond!

Haulin' devil-boogie junk in an Ed Roth jalopy,straight outta France, this is a record that burns, deep hellfire blues and gasoline vapor trail.  Chicken Diamond, his very unrighteous self, kicking voodoo sleaze across a dirty horizon,  howling and gnashing for your soul, blurred bluespunk, one man prophet, the pedal goes down and it's straight to the cliff of damnation, jeering the whole way.

The record kicks off with two stoned fuzzed ravers, "Disappear" and "Gold Rush", where Diamond peels off layers of skull, deep amphetamine revved up geetar fuckery, the smashed gravel vocal and primordial rhythm busting transistor tubes, hallelujah!  "Rock 'n' Roll People" starts of with a blood curdling scream and proceeds to fuck yr innards to jelly, and we dare you to defy it!

What's most interesting is when Diamond slows the pace, the distorted yowl still there, but taking on an even nastier menace, like the man who has been in your bedroom, watching you sleep.  Tracks like "Highway", "Get Town", and, most particularly, "The Gone" are haunted, visceral lamentations, in the most biblical sense, a fatalistic sense of menace and dread filling closed, almost claustrophobic spaces, daring you to enter a chamber of bad dreams and regrets that tug at darkest thoughts.

To that end, "The Gone" is the most chilling track, with Chicken Diamond intoning, over and over, permutations of "Thrill is gone/its gone away from me/Girl you done me wrong/you'll be sorry someday".  This isn't a lament, it's a promise, and over a hypnotic, distorted, guitar line, with the sparest of thumping rhythm behind it, Diamond proceeds to shred the very nature of evil, and the roles we all play within.

Damn, it's a good record.

It's called II.  It's by Chicken Diamond.  It's put out by Beast Records (on cd (ick) and VINYL!).  You'll be challenged to hear a better record all year!


Chicken Diamond: Country Song (mp3)

Xmas tunes start tomorrow!  Come on back for a visit!