Abigail Grush

The Phantom Beat (Barsuk)
by Jamie Kiffel

If you needed a rock opera based on your Eastern European grandmother’s attic, Abigail Grush would be the one to commission. Rich, musty mixtures of Old World sounds like klezmer horns, accordions and glockenspiels create a heady aura of nostalgia for the old country as well as a lot of catchy hooks. Imagine Rasputina’s energetic minor key fascination, minus the Gothic death edge. Where Melora Creager fingers old, dead wedding dresses in cracking leather trunks, Grush digs out heavily-patterned, indestructible aprons and ruffled dresses in a hearty size large, dumps out the mothballs, pulls them on and starts stompin’.

I imagine her dancing to “The Boy Next Door,” a memorable tune that could actually work as a Top-40 hit, or “New York City,” an insistently fast-paced song that captures the relentless, mixed-up beat of hideous traffic. Throw yourself into Grush’s weird world, and watch the dustballs kick up around old instruments suddenly made hip.
(www.barsuk.com)