Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers
I discovered Beat the Devil, Shilpa Ray’s previous band, through the brilliant Cable & Tweed, which sadly no longer covers an awful lot of music these days but used to be pretty much my number one source for new music on the internet.
I was a bit gutted when Beat the Devil packed it in a couple of years ago, but it was made clear pretty much immediately that this was just a tactical shift for Shilpa Ray herself, rather than a retirement, so it basically became a case of waiting and seeing. I covered all this on this week’s podcast actually, but I did manage to do just a little too much waiting. Basically, I took my eye of the ball quite a bit with this release, which actually came out back in July, although that’s just inevitable from time to time I guess.
This feels significantly different to Beat the Devil, certainly. It’s really fucking rock ‘n’ roll in many places, for example. I’m Not Frigid is a fearsome little ditty, and one with lyrics which prompt that brilliant ‘hang on, she didn’t just sing what I thought she sang did she?’ double take. Coward Cracked the Dawn is another ballsy one, and fucking great with it, but there are times when the more upbeat moments (Woman Sets Boyfriend on Fire for example) don’t really capture my imagination quite as well – too much shouting, and not enough of that brilliant combination of menacing accordion and Shilpa Ray’s stunning voice.
Nevertheless they keep the pace varying nicely, which is crucial for any record, and works very nicely here. The sequencing is restrained though. This is a band who always give you the impression that they could go completely mental, but they generally don’t which makes it all the more of a release when they do, and gives a distinct smoulder to the rest of the songs.
This stuff reminds me of all the female-fronted garage blues bands which were simmering away in Detroit around the time the White Stripes emerged – bands like the Detroit Cobras who played really old-fashioned music with the roughness and vitality of modern garage punk. Although this is a little more rock ‘n’ roll influenced, I supposed, than the blues and soul which drove those bands, but there’s not much in it.
Ultimately, influences aside, I think it’s probably a combination of the power of Shilpa Ray’s voice and the pace of the music, which switches from tense to raging in the blink of an eye, which gives this record its emotional charisma. Really good.
Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers – Beating St. Louis
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers – Coward Cracked the Dawn
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Been a while since we agreed on music.
I posted the “Beating St. Louis” mp3 back in August, but didn’t know anything about Shilpa’s past or the rest of the album. Good stuff.
It’s weird we agree on so little. I know you tend to like stuff a little prettier than I do, but the fact that two people who listen to 85% alternative folk music can still disagree so much is just baffling!