|
| |
 |
| Back to The Music Reviews Page |
 THE TOUCHERS
– The Shotgun (Site)
The city of
Bozeman
is not known as a hotbed for rock’n’roll.
But maybe it should be. If
The Touchers are in any way indicative of what goes on in the home of
Montana
State
University
, then you might just want to plan a little trip.
The Touchers play a skronky kind of garage/punk, with sparkling hot
lead guitar work inspired by ‘50s and 60’s legends like Scotty Moore
and Dick Dale and lyrics that fuse the observational skills of Bob Dylan
and Woody Guthrie with the biting incisiveness of the early punks.
And to top it all off, the songs are catchy as all get-out.
How do you beat a line like “shotguns are not used to being
useful”? Their
web site describes them as “The Pixies meet Steve Earle outside a
Nirvana show.” I think I
understand what they’re getting at, but, at least on this cd, I don’t
hear much Pixies or Nirvana. There
is a bit of Country twang here and there, especially in the vocals, so the
Steve Earle part makes some sense. But
to my ears, this is way more simple and straightforward than The Pixies
ever managed to be, and way more musical than Nirvana.
Maybe that’s just because I never really liked either The Pixies
of Nirvana, but whatever. The
fact is that I like The Touchers’ The
Shotgun a whole helluva lot. -Brian Mosher
|
|
