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TROY GREGORY
Sybil (Fall Of Rome)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
Troy Gregory is the front man for Detroit's coolest underground band, The Witches, so it's not too surprising that when he decided to do a solo album he found support from a most of the other underground bands that matter. On each track, Gregory becomes the front man for a different band, and the results are always mixed, but not in the way we usually mean when we say "mixed results." In this case, I mean we get a mix of Gregory's sense of dark mystery and whatever it is that makes the other band what it is.
No matter what the trademark sound of the band, the combination yields a surprise. I'm a big fan of the power pop band Outrageous Cherry, but I have to listen twice to be sure it's actually them performing on "Regrets... I've Had A Few" with Gregory, and The Sights, one of the most powerful bands on the planet, sound like another powerful band on "Leave The Ghost At Home." It's that way with everyone, from The Volebeats and Slumber Party to Jim Diamond's Pop Monsoon and They Come In Threes, but while Gregory makes every song his own, each track has a distinctly different sound thanks to the talents of the bands he worked with.
The production (uncredited as such though the liners say recorded by Jim Diamond, Bill Brovold and John Nash) has a lot to do with the artistic success of this album. There's a layer of reverb poured over the tracks that gives the entire event a feeling of mystery akin to the best of the early Blue Oyster Cult albums, whether the song is ethereal as "Other Dimensions Will Reveal Themselves 2 Be True 2 U," recorded with The Alphabet, or light and poppy like "Left My Mind Alone," recorded with The Volebeats. But the real star is Troy Gregory himself, the head Witch and a natural talent who deserves a large audience (who, in turn, would be very lucky to have discovered him).
I interviewed Troy for the Halloween issue of Cosmik Debris last year and learned that he lives in a house that's decorated for Halloween all year 'round. Funny, too, because I keep thinking this would be a perfect Halloween release. I guess this proves what Troy was saying all along. For him, it really is Halloween all year 'round.
Track List:
Lice Cots N' Rabies Shots (Bantam Rooster) * Leave The Ghosts At Home (The Sights) * Rat Squad (They Come In Threes) * Regrets...I've Had A Few (Outrageous Cherry) * Left My Mind Alone (The Volebeats) * Other Dimensions Will Reveal Themselves 2 B True 2 U (The Alphabet) * Dealin' In Death N' Stealin' In The Name Of The Lord (The Wildbunch) * It Ain't Human (The Come Ons) * Down 2 The Last Santa Claus (Jim Diamond's Pop Monsoon) * Electrik Fool (The Glow In The Dark Monsters) * Born In A Haunted Barn (The Dirtbombs) * We Werk The Lines In Yer Hand (Larval) * Freezing Rain Freezin' (Slumber Party)
© 2002 - DJ Johnson