The Duke Spirit - Bruiser

[euro60]

Just picked this up, I didn't realize they had a new CD out. Apparently this was released in the UK at the end of September. Amazingly, no US release date so far. Wow.

The album sounds great. Pretty heavy, actually.

Anyone else been listening to it?

[rva]

I've heard the three or four tracks they had streaming awhile back.  I'm not a huge fan of their sound in general, but I thought it was pretty good.

They definitely trimmed down a lot of the excess.  Less fuzz and drum and everything in your face all the time.  That was mostly a good move, because you it's not just a wall of noise.  But it was also bad in some ways.  Like I found Leila Moss's vocals more annoying in some places where they would have just passed by in some fuzzygruntwail in past records.

The bigger problem though, is they still don't have a proper understanding of dynamics.  Big, big noise is who they are and what they do.  They didn't need to turn it off, they just needed to be more judicious about cranking it up so that it could get more impact. 

But they really didn't do that.  They just gave this record what amounts to a more raw, heavy sound.  It still feels like they are going on eleven, just with the distortion down.  If they HAD at times brought in the big guitars that could have worked.  But they don't.  So it still feels one-dimensional.  They have headroom now, but they still don't know how to use it.

I'll have to listen to the whole thing when it comes out.  Maybe I just got a bad sample of songs.  But for now, they're still stuck in the "pretty good" category.

[frizgolf]

Ah, my friend Liela!

[euro60]

Ah, my friend Liela!

I'm trying to find the pix from the Shake It in-store, but in the meantime found this oldie but goodie from the Riverbend show the next day:

at the merch booth:

Liela holding up the Tshirt Frizgolf just gave and signed for her; cam27 and Fourthisto chatting with the band's drummer


Liela chatting with (on the right) Frizgolf, cam27 and Fourthisto

[frizgolf]

They were the coolest people to talk to.

[euro60]

They were the coolest people to talk to.

Russ, I know for sure I posted pix from the Shake It in-store at the WOXY boards (including some great shots of you and Leila), but for the life of me I cannot find them. Am I missing something?

[Homsar]

Pretty sure 4 was just using the drummer to get to the girl.
 

[Fourthisto]

Heck yes they were all impossibly nice, and not just because they gave us free tickets to the show! 

Pretty sure 4 was just using the drummer to get to the girl.

How DARE you throw out method #20 in my 37 step system, out here, on the internet, for FREE!  Who the EFF do you think you are?