Greg Thuman & Primal Static

by Craig Regala

Man, the great thing about the mp3/MySpace culture is that it amplifies and blows up the “home taper” ’90s into the actual market place (i.e. regular folks, Euwen Mee, et. al. who aren’t beholden to any undergroundist assholerie can grasp tunes unfiltered by commercial bullshit without dumb non-musical concerns). Now, this statement could be buttered by said bullshit: Who knows what the guy’s intent is? Hell, it all depends on the music. This is where YOU come in. You click, the tune plays, you decide. That’s it.

I’d say if you have any interest in the fluid, hard rockin’ dreamy blues-based thing, clock in here. Greg Thuman pulls hard on the blues; it’s his basic language. The jumping off point here is the spurting post-Zep string strangle winnowed through The Cult’s resurrection of that feel via the best moments of late ’80’s “hey baby” cock rockery by guys in mascara with a bottle of Aquanet keeping the hair high, ratty, and proud at the exact moment some model dumped’m. Really: Strip Cinderella of all the horse shit arrangement/production crap and you could walk in these shoes. Well, if you had the steely-eyed cool cruising through Jane’s Addictions “thing.”

So the tunes and playings here are for real, he hides behind nothing. The singing is ok – a bit flat – the guitar is his best voice. The bass and drums are chucked in the support bin, so I’d dig seeing the guy roll out with his live unit “Primal Static” and would love to see’m do a “blues-hop” rec. with beats and loops. His tone and versatility on the axe is the kinda thing you want to make sure isn’t wasted. My pick to click? The forth tune, “Shimmers.”

Mix tape’m with Foghat, John Lee Hooker, Steve Salas, Nicklebag (not “back”), Page-Coverdale, The Johnnies (Lang and Winter), Cinderella, and George Thorogood.
(www.primalstatic.com)