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SHUTDOWN 66
Welcome To Dumpsville (Get Hip)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
It's like the sounds that made up Them's "Gloria" got together, decided to break away from the band, turn up the volume and become a bunch of new songs. Who needs a band? The title track of Welcome To Dumpsville must be their clubhouse, where the various sounds get together and sound like "Gloria" again before going off and being high energy garage sounds of a totally different key in some other song. Some time ago, the sounds must have visited Melbourne, Australia, where five guys with the right look found and claimed them, and they've done quite well with them ever since.
In other words, garage fans have heard a lot of bands like Shutdown 66, because that's a sound that gets around, but on the other hand these guys attack their songs with genuine strut and swagger, and it's hard not to enjoy most of it. There's a Vox organ (played by someone theoretically named Camby Shutdown) back far enough in the mix that it often sounds like faint high-pitched tones signaling that something's wrong with your stereo, but when it cuts through, it's goosebump-swirly and just what the music needs. The players are all obviously well schooled in the art of mid-60s garage rocking, and best of all, the singer... Nicky, um, Shutdown... has never heard of vocal control, so he careens through the songs with all the raw energy of an early Mick Jagger with jumper cables on his genitals.
Think I'm complaining? No. From the Gloria-esque sounds to the spine tingling Vox organ to the aforementioned vocal style, it's all just way too good to remove from the CD player. At least if you get the whole garage thing. If you do, this is highly getable. As for their names, I just think it would be amusing if they hired a hard drinking guitarist and named him Liver Shutdown. (Sorry.) This album, by the way, has been around for a little while (I'm not sure when it was released), but has just now become available in the U.S. through Get Hip. They apparently have several other releases in Australia, as well.
[Pick this up at www.gethip.com.]
© 2003 - DJ Johnson