Jucifer

I Name You Destroyer (Velocette)
by Craig Regala

The Lambs EP dropped a couple months ago and now this… More of the same? Sure. But no problem with that… It’s not like their take on “rock” has worn out its welcome. They do the same general thing, their thing, which is exactly what a band’s supposed to do. This thing uses guitar & drums (no bass, so you get a lurch instead of a swing), with bits of synth or something as flavoring. The songs waddle, drift, pound, and wiggle around the big dumb rock beat, never really wandering off, which makes me like songs by Fu Manchu, Joan Jett, Goatsnake, Beastie Boys, and Kid Rock, regardless of what I “think about them.”

Jucifer will never remind anyone specifically of any of those named, especially because Jucifer’s singer uses more personalities (not range) in her vocalizing; dreamy, heroin-soaked, noir foreboding, conversationally rhythmic, deathy growls/screeches, and well, plain spoken “singing” that’d lick a Tori Amos fan “right there.” Since I don’t pay for records, I can’t tell you if I’d buy it, but I will use more than one song in mix tapes/CDRs I make for my friends. I’d play it this week – I’m on a local station quarterly – if the Siskel/Ebert guy who runs the show’ll let me pick more. The song I’d play is “Amplifier” (not the dB’s song), a tune which could make these guys the Breeders of stoner rock. I have both of the albums and the EP and they’re getting better, meaning they aren’t a “punk” or “art” band; both of which peak early. Rock bands hone and hammer their craft, they work on it. Plus I played “Amplifier” for my nieces, all under three years old, and they were OK with it, dancing around just like they do during that Pink song and “Surfin’ Bird.”
(83 Walton St. Atlanta, GA 30303)