Firewater

Songs We Should Have Written (Jetset)
by Lex Marburger

As an adventure into the influences of Firewater, a cover album seems to be only logical. Match that up with a great album title, and Tod A and the boys are off and running. The songs stretch far and wide, from Johnny Cash to Sonny Bono to Robyn Hitchcock, and all with that typical Firewater flair, the booze-soaked, horn-spiked, Eastern Europe-gutter trawling sound conjures up the image of drunken Mariachis in Kosovo. As always, it takes a couple of listens to get the feel of the album just right, and this one more than ever, since it’ll be hard to separate the original sound from what these guys have done to it. In the end, you may not like what they do to the Beatles’ “Hey Bulldog,” or the Stones’ “Paint It Black,” but few bands have the balls to put both songs on an album that also features the Lee Hazelwood/Nancy Sinatra number “Some Velvet Morning.” By the way, if you ever have a chance to see Firewater play live, do not hesitate. No matter how much time they spend in the studio, nothing will ever compare.
(67 Vestry St. 5B New York, NY 10013)