Coachwhips

Double Death

(Narnack Records, 2006)

John Dwyer sounds distant and disturbed as he yells at listeners through what sounds like a bullhorn in time to his dirty two or three piece band – depending on what track is dialed up. What this band does well, as it’s playing its own brand of thrashy, stop and go garage, is create rhythms that are pleasing even as the melodies are ridiculously simplistic. Pretty much all of these songs clock in at less than three minutes. So, you’re looking at less than an hour of music over the twenty-four tracks presented here. To conceive of all of these melodies, even if they reach their natural end in a short time, is still an incredible feat. And while this is not an album proper, but a collection of b-sides and rarities, it serves to survey the band’s style.

In addition to the original material there’re a number of covers towards the end of the disc. Included is an instrumental version of The Velvet Underground’s “I Guess I’m Falling in Love”, a Gories track and “The Witch” by The Sonics. The last track mentioned lends itself to the band nicely partially due to The Coachwhips’ uncanny ability to stay perfectly in time with each other while playing the stop and go game.

The DVD that accompanies this slew of music is what makes Double Death enticing. On the DVD various engagements the band had over its brief career are displayed. Video and sound quality vary, but in this case – for this band - that’s appropriate. No one will say that Double Death is the buy of the year, but it’s damned entertaining and makes the Black Keys and Holly Golightly look like a buncha hacks.

The Ohsees

The Cool Death of Island Raiders

(Narnack Records, 2006)

This is almost not an album.  All of these tracks clock in at around thirty six minutes.  If you take out the ten minutes of drones, that leaves the consumer with a piddley twenty five minutes of music.  And what makes up that twenty five minutes, you may ask.  John Dwyer, formerly of the thrashy blues punk group The Coachwhips, has written moderately intelligent, if not overtly esoteric lyrics, accompanied them on acoustic guitar with the help of a percussionist and a female sidekick tossing in some harmonies.  What this group has gotten down on record is at the very least attractive, interesting and a bit haunting, but that really doesn’t excuse what appears to be a lacksidasical attitude in regards to actual song writing and composition.  “The Guilded Cunt” is pretty, despite the title, as are a number of other tracks, which all have been created ostensibly in the same mold.  But, you want one word to describe this release?  Here it is: slight.  Slight in effort, slight in a vocal sense (considering that they lie way down in the mix) and slight in the sense that, if I was to pay ten to twelve dollars for this release I would feel slighted.  Thank you ladies and gentleman.  Good night.