Blogarhythms

Thanks to the filmography of Woody Allen, and nine seasons of Seinfeld, the stereotype of the urban-American Jew as a neurotic, over-analytical basket-case who manufactures problems for themselves where there are none is imprinted in the collective consciousness. But in all my days I never thought of myself as this brand of Hebrew. So you can imagine my chagrin when my best friend casually described me as a perpetual worrier who invents complications, dilemmas, dangers and obstacles to concern myself with and complain about when everything is otherwise fine-and-dandy the other day.

In spite of my protestations I realized there might be something to my fiber-friendly homegirl’s summary when I sat down to write today’s post. Facing an ever-growing stack of records I’ve enjoyed since the start of 2008 I got a little nervous about the amount of music I haven’t gotten around to covering, worrying that I was missing opportunities to big up recently-released albums I dug and allowing them to fall by the wayside amidst a crush of always-newer discs. So there I was, lamenting that I had too much of a good thing to share with my readers, when I realized that no fewer than three months ago I struggled with a perceived lack of exciting new releases in the then-newborn year in a post about Thao Nguyen in this very space!

My feeling of counterfeit anxiety quickly abated, replaced by grudging acceptance of the realization that I just might be a neurotic mess. But rather than succumbing to type by dwelling on the results of my self-assessment I put on my headphones and rocked out with one of the recordings I’d been “fronting on.” That album, the debut long-player from San Diego-based co-ed trio Grand Ole Party titled Humanimals, is something to be rocked out to indeed. The threesome, comprised of drummer and vocalist Kristin Gundred, guitarist John Paul Labno, and bassist Michael Krechnyak, is an honest-to-God Rock-band whose music, which incorporates elements of so-called Classic Rock, Garage-Rock, barroom-Blues-Rock, and Punk, sounds something like a more bare-bones Yeah Yeah Yeahs mixed with the White Stripes, if Meg sang instead of Jack. And there’s not a synthesizer or drum-machine within earshot!

What there is plenty of are Kristin Gundred’s up-front, balls-out vocals. Her melodramatic wails, yelps and shouts recall both YYY’s front-woman Karen O. & Beth Ditto of The Gossip for their soulful spunk and art-punk attitude, but even more-so sisters Ann & Nancy Wilson of ’70s Rock mainstays Heart. Throughout my first listen to Humanimals the comparisons to Karen O. and the Wilsons ran briskly through my cerebrum, with songs like “Insane,” “Look Out Young Son,” “Gypsy March,” “Bad, Bad Man” and “Troubadour of the Water” sounding to me like the offspring of a love-affair between Show Your Bones and Dreamboat Annie.

Grand Ole Party “Insane”

Hopefully the only music-related neuroses I’ll encounter from here on out will consist of Heart threatening to go “Crazy On You,” Grand Ole Party chanting “I-N-S-A-N-E,” and other things of that nature.

- El Keter