If ever someone was looking for a perfect example of a band's sound and its image just not lining up, they'll find it on Semi Truck – the debut album by Silvergun & Spleen. The clash is perfect; gazing at the cover of the album (which features a picture of all four bandmembers – including a ravishing set of twin sisters – mugging it up in the cab of a transport truck), we're given the impression of a rough and ready group of working class roughnecks (like Nashville Pussy maybe – except from Quebec) ready to shoot first and run like hell, or at least shake all night long. Then we hear the music; a sound and demeanor much closer to the most recent Gossip album than anyone could possibly expect, it will have those who hear it doing double-takes at the incisiveness and perfectly tidy nature of it. Semi Truck is a sort of rare gem; as rare as finding strings of pearls packaged in a brown paper bag.
After listeners get past the clash of impressions put forth early on Semi Truck, then they'll begin to realize that the experience is also diamond-dense and high-priced too. With what sounds like neatly appointed, Pro Tools production, singer Marie-Eve Mallet slinks and slithers her way around rock solid but perfectly smooth and even slippery strains of rock-punk laid out by guitarist Veronique Mallet, bassist John Lenherr and drummer Chris Page, and songs like “Just Enough To Dance,” “An Eye For An Eye,” “Highway Nightlife Intermezzo” and “Losing It” all snake-charm listeners as they continue to try and reconcile the difference between what they expected and what they're hearing. In the end, they'll either just succumb to the rhythm and just start dancing a funky, punky and modal two-step with the band – ignoring the puzzle of the record – or they'll stalk away in frustration because they still can't reconcile what they're hearing with what they see as “Too Late” pinwheels through and closes the record. In that end, it can only be said that Semi Truck is a “love it or hate it” affair – but, happily, those who get hooked on it will get hooked hard.
Artist:
www.silvergunandspleen.com/
www.myspace.com/silvergunandspleenmusic
www.facebook.com/silvergunandspleen
www.twitter.com/SilvergunSpleen
Album:
Semi Truck is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
