Picket Palace – All About The Money
Oh, man, I’d just about had enough of the well-trained attempts at playing punk-rock ironically in a way that utilizes polyrhythms. And, then, I heard Picket Palace. Yeah, they seem like lads who could probably knock out some prog-rock greatest hits if they really wanted. However, they seem irritated, agitated, and content to bang out power chords and shout out their vexation.
“All About The Money” is their newest single, an ode to the cheapening of pop culture. See, around the time that record labels and movie studios figured this internet thing was gonna cut down on their profits, we got to witness 24/7 pop star marathons. Trying to escape the latest Cardi B single is harder than trying to outrun the Black Plague in the 14th Century. But, I digress.
Picket Palace puts plenty of personality in the display window. Them power chords sound cheeky and energized. The vocals resemble the kind of conversation someone begins at the local watering hole, right before they convince you to sit down for another one.
Heady stuff!
Wolf Among Wolves – Election Day
Wolf Among Wolves is the reckless singer-songwriter giving “cancel culture” an unhealthy shaking. Possessing a dreary voice and world-worn poetry that reminds us of Lou Reed, Wolf Among Wolves is here to tell us what he really thinks of the electoral season. And, just like his laid-back, lo-fi heroes, it seems to matter very little to him whether anyone desires to hear him or not.
“A correction is in order” he sings in a pot-stained tone over Pavement-like accompaniment. However, if the title makes you believe you are in a for Minor Threat kind of hardcore-punk sonic assault, you might get surprised. “Election Day” spends its time-sharing mini-vignettes, before coming to the conclusion that the “System is rigged from the start“.
It’s a conclusion few are likely to embrace in an age of optimism and vote-encouragement, but one that is bizarrely missing from public dialogue. As for the music itself, much like Reed himself, a man that once devoted a full double album to the art of feedback-noise, Wolf Among Wolves doesn’t really care about the production quality, and can’t be bothered with a system he sees as corrupt either. Many would be glad to pay handsomely just to imitate this kind of cool.
