|  Monday, May 21, 2007
Juliette and The Licks
Four on the Floor
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Thrashing somewhere between Jet, the Foo Fighters, and Pink is former screen-star Juliette Lewis, frontwoman of her 4-year old band, Juliette and The Licks. Over the course of Four on the Floor, the LA bands 2006 sophomore album, Juliette spins, crawls, screams and kills, bringing with each track a balance of trite eye-rollers and ear-scorching, one-of-a-kind attitude. In Smash and Grab, she can get away with Were gonna rock it tonight by snarling Pretty police lights glowin red/Like the blood in your face when I tore up your bed. Ow.
There are exceptions to this rule. Purgatory Blues and Are You Happy reveal the vocal ability youd rather not know aboutthe one that evokes Fefe Dobson and Michelle Branch, and the one that may land The Licks back with Silvertide, in the annals of forgotten throwback hard-rockers. However, this sugary register juxtaposed to the sickening imagery of Death of a Whore is pure genius: All tattered and blue like a gutted sheep will give you shivers precisely because its sweetly crooned, giving a new stab (no pun intended) to a topic thats been addressed many times before.
Its no small feat to recall The Who, The Stones, and AC/DC all in one song, but thats what J&TL accomplish in Get Up. Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters frontman and former drummer of Nirvana, who drummed with The Licks (guitarists Todd Morse and Kemble Walters and bassist Jason Womack) for the recording of Four, seems to have rubbed off on Lewis in Inside The Cage, the darkest track on the record. She moans, Ill waste, Ill waste inside the cage, and youve got to wonder why she doesnt list Hole among her influences. Lewis may walk a fine edge between popstar and disturbed biker, but she struts it with aching sincerity.
Gods, killers, whores, cops, bitches, and Bullshit Kings. According to Juliette and her faithful Licks, its a dirty, dirty world. . .but since were here, its damn worth fighting to survive. - Dorit Finkel
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the shaky hands
let it die
camera obscura
my maudlin career
busdriver
jhelli beam
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