Campfire Girls

(Interscope)
by Jamie Kiffel

This is the first CD I’ve received that won’t run on my computer. Interscope apparently thinks enough of Campfire Girls to have copy-protected their disc. So was it worth it?

According to the PR release,the band is actually backwater flow from Interscope, given a second chance after blowing it a few years back with too many drugs and not enough promised records. But Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots) pushed the band to get back together, and recently their grungy, regretful delinquent sound re-won label president Mark Williams’ trust. Thus the new record was born.

It’s rough and raw bad boy stuff, the sort of thing that makes Ivy League prepster girls put on purple lipstick and “my darkness is indescribable” pouts. But the boys, Christian Stone and Andrew Clark, understand that screaming inside. They’re the ones who abandon us and then apologize on stage in stadium rocker minor key, tearfully cutting records the whole way. Chicks love damaged goods, and apparently, so does Interscope. So the drug-recovered dudes got a second chance. Frankly, what they’ve created is very hot stuff, and will strike gray and gritty chords with almost anyone who’s ever hit bottom.

Just don’t try to score a free copy if you happen to be at the bottom right now.