Many thanks to Brody Dalle, Tony Bevilacqua, Alain Johannes, and Jack Irons for producing a CD I'm glad I didn't miss this year. Spinnerette's self-titled debut is full of vigor, attitude ... and Brody Dalle's gorgeous voice. This was my first exposure to her and it was quite worth it.
These guys have apparently all either played together before or have been part of another band such as The Distillers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eleven. The point is, of course, they all have experience. This is a debut record, but the players are all veterans. It shows.
Dalle did an interview a few months ago with Gasoline magazine and she makes a good point therein about genre's and categorization. “Why does everything have to fit into a category?” She doesn't want to and Spinnerette doesn't want to.
The best way I can explain them is to have you imagine a little bit of Billy Idol, a little bit of Pink, a little bit of Joan Jett, a tad of No Doubt and you've got an approximation of Spinnerette. They perform a kind of mystical, shamanistic music for a punk rock princess and Dalle plays the part precisely. From throaty to scratchy to high-pitched girly pop voice she does it all with sincerity and authenticity. And she makes it all incredibly alluring.
The music matches that – booming drums incite each song, giving it a bigger than punk sound, guitars that sometimes crunch like hard rock and sometimes squeal like injured animals, a little synth injected here and there to give it a Saturday Night Live electronica parody groove. It's all loud and coarse and thoroughly enjoyable.
“Ghetto Love” kicks off the CD, channeling old '80s alt/punk rock. “Geeking” has a the vibe of summer abandon. But, the fourth track, “Baptized By Fire”, is the song that stuck in my head for days. This one song makes this whole record worth having. It's got an epic chorus and really embodies the mystical shamanistic music I mentioned earlier. Cool, cool song.
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