blackleatherbookshelf | Entries tagged with the plimsouls

Double Trouble
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Two years after his solo debut, Phil Seymour delivered another power-poptastic album, the unimaginatively titled 2, complete with a double image of Seymour dressed in stripes against a juicyfruit kind of backdrop. Similarities to the first album were more than intentional. The original album contained a mix by Val Garay ("Bette Davis Eyes," a lot of Linda Ronstadt) that has been scrapped for this reissue, along with Seymour's cover of Twilley's "Looking for The Magic," which has been moved to the reissue of Seymour's debut.

Which is something I have to admit, I didn't notice. The vinyl version of PS2 left my collection decades ago, so my memories of the original Boardwalk issue/mix are fuzzy at best. On the other hand, something that did stay with me and carries over is that PS2 was not as stellar an album as the debut. There's no song here that matches the perfection of "Precious To Me," although the Cowsills (!!!) penned "Dancing a Dream" comes closest. Phil also nicked a good unreleased Tom Petty song, "Surrender." There's plenty of jangle guitars ("Better to Me Than You") and heartache pop. Good stuff, albeit with thin production by Richard Polodor/Bill Cooper.

The gems are the previously unreleased tracks. In particular, they do a fine job on The Plimsouls' "Now" while not topping it, and beat Pam Tillis to "Maybe it was Memphis" (a top ten country hit for her) by almost a decade. One of my fave New Wave bands, 20/20, finds there song "Chemistry" in the bonuses, and a Textones song (PS was a member) "Gotta Get The Feeling Back" shows up here in what I assume is the original version. So I can certainly recommend PS2 to die hard power-poppers and Dwight Twilley fans, but the debut aces this disc by a pretty wide margin.

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Diggin' What He's Putting Down
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Peter Case recovers from a serious illness and surgery, and gets out the guitars for therapy. "Wig!" - eleven songs recorded in barely a week to a two inch analog tape machine plus another song done in one take from a few years back - is a ragged, raw, blues-based rock album that sweats. In the early days of The Plimsouls, Case exhibited ab affinity for blues in his power-pop, and in the years since going solo, has delved deeper and deeper with each release. "Wig!" is that sort of convincingly gritty rock that his fans have been waiting for, with legendary X drummer Dj Bonebrake pounding the drums and guitarist Ron Franklin giving heat to the backing.

"Life is long and the road gets mean/but the old blue car is more than just a machine" Case howls on "New Old Blue Car" (which he originally recorded for his 1986 solo debut as "Old Blue Car"), which could be a metaphor for Case's recovery. Case is, as usual, on point with the new songs and their lyrics. His medical emergency was both physically and financially draining; like so many musicians, Case had no medical insurance. he came out of this grateful for the support of his friends (who put on benefits to cover the expenses) and with an understanding of how fragile the safety net can be. The songs "House Rent Jump" and "Ain't Got No Dough" are racing with energy, while the lyrically obtuse "Somebody Told The Truth" ponders what would happen if everyone woke up and realized just how stacked everything is against them.

Feisty or moaning (the piano based "My Kind of Trouble"), Peter Case is back in his zone. No polish was required to get the feelings out on "Wig!" I'd recommend this for fans of T-Bone Burnett and Steve Earle.