The Sinking Spells
from Salem, MA . conjure an EP entitled "The Devil At My Side".
It looks real. How long will it last?
Passionate yet
lyrical hardcore Goth rock you say? ha it is much more from this
band. They hail from Salem, Massachusetts that bewitched spot
swirling in the cauldron of American history.
It is also close to,
but not exactly-- the environs and stomping ground for famed
cult author and illustrator Edward Gorey, who is 1964 published
a work of nonsense called "Sinking Spell."
Gorey, among his
many talents, wrote music for the punk band The Freeze, started
by Clif Hanger.
So Sinking Spells
has a cool pedigree for its name. As for what that has to do
with the Devil, well Gorey wrote silly macabre stories and
illustrated them so expertly, that he was called to illustrate
books way out of his genre such as
Old Possum's Book of Practical
Cats, by the poet T.S. Eliot. (As a Harvard undergrad
student, Grey roomed with the poet Frank O'Hara.)
This is a varied and
vital piece of music that may amaze and surprise, even as one
runs into the predictable. I hear Bauhaus i hear many
influences, influence, oh I don't know that may only be the
devil talking.
I can't make out the
lyrics to be able to say whether they have anything to do with
that, except that they seem to sing about their various trouble.
Musically the album is quite fine. Possibly Satan has been a
positive influence on their sound, just like, so the legend
goes, the great blues guitarist Robert Johnson.
Multiple
personalities, demons, they don't matter, the band is fun, moon
and darkness fun. They deserve a break, before they have a
nervous breakdown.
