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In their first offering since 2005’s impressive debut Tanglewood, the Black have finally pressed the Donna EP to 12” vinyl, with gorgeous cover art courtesy of lead singer David Longoria. Though only 6 six songs, the EP was worth the wait and asserts the Black at the forefront of the local indie garage revival that has taken such a strong hold over the past couple of years. Since it’s recording, the Black have added a fourth member, Ryan Hall, to the original trio of Longoria, Alan Schaefer, and Yamal Said, with the EP also featuring contributions from Voxtrot’s Matt Simon and Jared Van Fleet.
As Longoria writes at the beginning of a long, stream of consciousness, disjointed abstraction of a poem on the back of the album sleeve: “What you see has been fabricated�taken and cut from an old cloth found in a dusty closet.” It’s an adequate enough starting point for digging into the Black’s sound, for there is something decidedly retro in their scratchy riffs and jangle pop hooks, a comfortable lilt that recalls any number of influences. Yet the beauty of that Black is the inability to hang onto any one of those fleeting impressions for very long, as the Donna EP, like Tanglewood, seems to look back to only drive forward. Most noticeable is Longoria’s unique voice, which taken alongside the impressionistic, almost absurdist lyrics of songs like “Chicken Doctor,” hearkens Dylan with a nasally twang, and a slight Brit tilt that puts the songs just as comfortably in the vein of the Kinks’ Muswell Hillbillies.
“E Folk (I’m Not Saying),” which begins Side 1, starts like Dylan’s “Absolutely Sweet Marie,” as Longoria drawls out, “I waited for you, not knowing that you could not be true” and kicks with lines like “I’m not sayin’ that you did me wrong, Or that you were cruel, It’s just hard to find that I was the one, The one who played the fool” backed by some great high-end harmonica blowing. The title track rolls with a more country bent, and there’s an unsettling scratchiness as the vocals of the chorus stretch intentional to brink of range, while “Chicken Doctor” plies a rockabilly guitar lick from Schaefer against the shouted/sung verses contorting through strange images.
The EP’s best track may be Side 2’s lead off, “Eshu Blues,” a strait up Dylan-esque rant cut with a garage rock fury, Longoria unhinged and cymbals crashing in the background of Van Fleet’s fevered piano blasts. “Lorelei” settles a bit more smoothly, melodic and soulful but still rolling infectiously. Shaefer closes out the album with his best guitar work on “Summer In Baden-Baden” behind the lazy, almost spoken lyrics. What’s so impressive for the EP is just how tight the Black sounds for it to be only their second release, in control even as they let loose. And though it seems that Longoria has something to say even if he hasn’t managed to find exact right lines to convey it, the pieces are all in place and there’s some enlightenment to be discovered in the dark corners, as much as the Black may revel in avoiding and frustrating it.
Websites:
www.theblackmusic.com
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