Remember when rock’n’roll [I]was [/I]dance music? That halcyon period in rock’s youth, when rock’n’roll was the party music of choice, and a deep, flavoursome boogie permeated every groove. Think danceable guitar music, the R&B of the [a]Stones[/a], the ramalama of [a]MC5[/a], the metallic street strut of The Stooges’ ‘Loose’. Nowadays, too few bands truly conjure up that spirit; Rocket From The Crypt caught that magic once, but rarely do so now. Delta 72′s upcoming ‘000’ recalls ‘Gimme Shelter’‘s junk-funk, perhaps a little too closely.
Canada’s Tricky Woo, however, sound like they sleep among the bones of the deceased greats, imbibing their essences as they slumber. They capture the goony absurdity, the blatant uncool of stoner rock, without the embarrassing sub-Tolkein cod-mysticism. The ace up their sleeves, a blessed brevity, a mean leanness. This is dinosaur rock, skeletonised by punk but losing none of its bite or power.
And this is, assuredly, dancing music. The funky riffs, the chantalong choruses (pure Motor City magic), the spirited nonspecific calls to arms (Andrew Dickson‘s cigs’n’Jack stewed rasp howling, “I’m gonna save you with rock’n’roll!” [/I]on ‘Sad Eyed Woman’ being a perfect example) capture some ecstatic euphoria, as if ‘Sometimes I Cry’ were the soundtrack to a party thrown by the characters in Linklater‘s [I]Dazed & Confused[/I] the day after Tricky Dicky was impeached. From the garage, then, a new hope for rock’n’roll.