GREEN ON RED
Gas Food Lodging / Green On Red (Restless)
Reviewed by John Sekerka

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Danny Stuart and Chuck Prophett deserved to be alt.country's glitter twins, but alas, the road for Green on Red wasn't paved with gold. It wasn't paved at all. A rough ride on a dusty trail at best, but what a ride. The re-release of their brilliant record Gas Food Lodging, a tough find to begin with and now with a couple of killer bonus tracks, is reason enough to pop the whisky cork, but friends, we also get the even tougher to locate debut slab. Seven meandering tracks recorded for Steve Wynn's tiny Down There imprint back in '82. Along with Dream Syndicate and Rain Parade, Green on Red berthed a thrilling guitar twang take on post punk dubbed the Paisley Underground. In retrospect, a lousy label for this band. The dark, disturbing tales of Danny Stuart had more in common with bluesy Gun Clubber Jeffrey Lee Pierce (himself a victim of wrong place wrong time circumstance), and Prophett's wicked guitar slices reminiscent of Keith Richards. No matter, the music stands up all these years later, and folks tripping all over themselves at Wilco's every move could do well to check this two-fer out.

© 2003 - John Sekerka