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Gourds - Haymaker!
| Pastemagazin |
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from Shakespeare to flatulence), and Haymaker! is no exception. Songwriters Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith jumble together a wide range of stories—whores working the "Tex-Mex Mile," a "fossil contender" digging up ancient skulls and a moonlit drive to Jericho in a "rusted automobile”—like a group of tattered, brightly-painted marionettes dancing to the hoe-down tune of accordions, harmonicas, strings and drums. On previous albums, especially 2006's Heavy Ornamentals, the band has woven tongue-in-cheek contempt for its subjects into many of its stories, from a slew of inconsiderate cohabitators ("New Roommate"), to college kids with special knowledge ("The Education Song"). But on Haymaker!, Russell and Smith pursue their character sketches with considerably more empathy than previous years. In the second track, the narrator asks the "fossil contender," "Well how would you feel / If I dug up your head?" In "Bridget," a sparkling dialogue occurs between a young political zealot and a cynical old man on a road trip, which teases out each character's humorous lack of understanding for the other. Despite the humor, the song ends on a strangely compassionate note, as the "old geezer" gives the girl $10 and drops her off, thinking she'll "need a reason to live tonight."...full text |
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| Popmasters |
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"Your country loving is so sweet” sing the Gourds on their latest studio release, Haymaker!. Although the line is for a woman, they may as well be singing it about themselves. After more than a decade wherein they have earned a reputation for a smartass, hyper-clever lyrical repertoire, not to mention a smoking live show, to turn around and use their own word choice, “sweet”, to describe their new record, may seem a slight. It’s not. The focus the band possesses on this release, in storytelling and singing and playing, is a coup for country music as a genre. That’s not to say the Gourds have adopted the straight-and-narrow. The band many got to know through their cover of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” is still capable of proving there’s a dunce cap or two lying around. It’s just that now they sound a little life-worn, like maybe they’ve woken up and found themselves the teacher in this new classroom....full text |
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| Austinchronicle |
| Few acts can make the tenacity of merely surviving sound celebratory, so maybe the Gourds really were made for these times. The local quintet's 10th studio offering is polished and direct but still distinctly and eclectically Gourdian, from the growling New Orleans blues-funk of "The Way You Can Get" to the weary, slurring, back-porch banjo of "Hey Thurman." Yet the Gourds have always been as aesthetically outside the norm as they are stylistically unique, and Haymaker! revels in a mad world, whether exuberantly escaping it on kickoff "Country Love" or rocking the breadline on "New Dues." The loping "All the Way to Jericho" winds Kevin "Shinyribs" Russell's rough verses into a wistfully poppy chorus, and the keepin' on mentality of "Shreveport" cuts Cajun to a methamphetamine trucker rush. Misfits and outcasts abound, from the hitchhiking Corpus activist in "Bridgett" to the outsourced and unemployed of "Luddite Juice," though the Gourds take on impending hardship with the determined wink of a hurricane party. The raucous "Six Days on the Road" rip of "Tex-Mex Mile" serenades South Congress' seedy side, but closer "Tighter" encapsulates the joy of fleeting victories, even if "All yer left with's a record and a past kinda checkered." (CD release: Friday, Jan. 30, Antone's.)...full text |
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