I Will Be Me
Purple Pyramid
With a little help from a lot of friends, Dave Davies’ second album since his 2004 stroke is a conscious effort to emphasize the guitar rock and tone down (relatively speaking) the spiritual/metaphysical themes that have suffused his output since going solo with 1980’s “AFL1-3603.”
In an interview in the blog Lehigh Valley Music, the former Kinks guitarist says he spent a year writing the album’s songs and a year putting it together. Brian Perera, head of Purple Pyramid parent label Cleopatra Records, told Good New Music by e-mail that he and Davies selected the rotating cast of musicians with help from producer Jurgen Engler (co-founder of German industrial-rock band Die Krupps), Jonathan Lea (of psych-pop group The Jigsaw Seen) and A&R man John Lappen.
Right off the bat it must be said that regardless of whose idea it was to have New Orleans session man Bruce Tyner contribute pedal steel guitar to “Midnight in L.A.,” it was a stroke of genius. And speaking of country rock, ditto for the Jayhawks’ guest appearance on “Remember the Future” and its twanging duel guitars by Davies and Gary Louris that recall the Kinks’ “Muswell Hillbilly” era.
On the other end of the spectrum there’s “Erotic Neurotic,” with Australian punk band The Art; “In the Mainframe,” with garage-blues-punk band The Bloody Hollies; and the nostalgic “Little Green Amp,” with punk rockers Anti-Flag.
Less easy to pigeonhole are labelmate Geri X (a Bulgarian-born singer/songwriter) and John Wesley (a singer/songwriter/prog-rock sideman). Making things even more eclectic are Lithuanian-born violinist Yura Zeleznik, lo-fi performer Ty Segall, stoner-rockers Dead Meadow and fuzz-rockers The Lost Souls Club. The closest thing to a mainstream group here is U.K. blues-rocker Oli Brown.
Three tracks worthy of special recognition are the sitar-laden “The Healing Boy,” which is about Davies’ new grandson; the synthesizer-and-guitar-only “Walker Through the Worlds,” with its Middle Eastern riffing and Tuvan throat singer effects; and the closing, title track “Côtes Du Rhône (I Will Be Me),” featuring some elegantly restrained slide guitar to drive home its message: Don’t let the Establishment tell you what to do and be, “You can be anything you want.”
Tracks
1. Little Green Amp (w/ Anti-Flag)
2. Livin’ In The Past (w/ Ty Segall)
3. The Healing Boy (w/ Yura Zeleznik, The Jigsaw Seen)
4. Midnight In L.A. (w/ Bruce Tyner, The Jigsaw Seen)
5. In The Mainframe (w/ The Bloody Hollies)
6. Energy Fields (w/ Dead Meadow)
7. When I First Saw You (w/ Geri X and John Wesley)
8. The Actress (w/ Oli Brown Band)
9. Erotic Neurotic (w/ The Art)
10. You Can Break My Heart (w/ The Lost Souls Club)
11. Walker Through The Worlds
12. Remember The Future (w/ The Jayhawks)
13. Côtes Du Rhône (I Will Be Me) [w/ Chris Spedding]
Total time: 1:04:17
External links
artist’s website
amazon.com
iTunes Store
