Waco Brothers, Wacoworld (Bloodshot)
Curtis Ross
* 03/26/99
The Tampa Tribune
(Copyright 1999)
The biggest favor you could ever do a Waco Brothers CD is never to
see them live. In person, the Wacos come on like six banditos
trapped in the bunker with nothing to lose. They're surrounded and
they've got nothing left to do but spend all the ammo and leave as
many casualties as possible. Even if they ever make their own "Exile
on Main Street" or "Grievous Angel," they'll never capture that on a
5-inch silver platter.
So for recording purposes, the Wacos show they can do other
things: buoyant pop ("Day of the Dead"), steel guitar-drenched
weepers ("Hello to Everybody") and nasty, left-leaning social
commentary disguised as working man's blues ("Pigsville").
The eclecticism reflects this band's
* bizarre-for-even-alternative-country pedigree. Jon Langford is one
of the Mekons, who were pillaging country's roots a decade and a half
ago. But the respective outfits of Mark Durante (KMFDM?!) and Alan
Doughty (Jesus Jones?!) would seem to have little connection to the
Kentucky hills of Hank Williams.
It may be that outsider status that lets the Wacos take chances
* with country music that the crop of bimbos and bimbettes being
churned out by Nashville wouldn't dare, much less think of in the
first place. Hence the surf's-up guitar of "Good for Me" and the
sentiments of the same (I know what's good for me / But sometimes
it's good / To do all the other things).
The Clash-meets-Johnny Cash analogy has been overused to describe
this band (and probably ignores the fact that Cash got wilder and
crazier than the Clash ever did). But it gives a hint of what the
Brothers are capable of. Pray they visit Florida soon, and play
"Wacoworld" real loud in the meantime.
