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Album Review

The Moaners
Blackwing Yalobusha Yep Roc Records

Article written by Ged M - May 21, 2007

A guitar-drums two piece puts you in mind of the White Stripes and Black Keys but Melissa Swingle and Laura King have home advantage in actually coming from the southern states (Mississippi to be exact). Blackwing Yalobusha was recorded at Money Shot Studios in Como, MS, home of Fat Possum Records, where bluesmen like Junior Kimbrough and R L Burnside have recorded. The album, naturally, reflects the South, from the blues influences in the songs to the biblical-sounding lyrics and it has an underlying Southern Gothic feel, the sort that sets you shivering even in the warmest part of the day.

Once you get into the music, you notice the influence of indie as well as the blues. While Jack and Meg spring to mind on �Yankee On My Shoulder�, the Breeders are in there too; on the shakily-lensed film that enhances the CD, Melissa admits to having started in �conventional� indie bands until her frustration with their inability to play what she heard in her head made her team up with a woman who keeps a perfect beat.

Amid all the fairly primitive rhythms strummed and beaten out by the duo, the best song, �Shrew�, mashes together bluesy riffs and Throwing Muses sass, and contains the fine mantra: �no fear, no envy, no meanness�. That Southern Gothic style is also apparent: there�s a rowdy tribute to Pam Greer on �Foxy Brown� while �French Song� is mostly sung in French, except where Melissa weirdly croons to her subject: �I know that you don�t speak French but, baby, you look French�. �Poor Souls� is a broken down, melancholy country-blues with amazing effects that sound as if the guitar�s steadily detuning but the effects are a bit too disconcerting on �When We�re Dead And Gone�, a good Breeders-like garage tune that seems to speed up and slow down at will and has the same effect as sitting on a waltzer all afternoon. It's a smart first effort from the band, rough-edged but not crude, a real song of the South.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/themoaners