Gully
Gregory
self-released
Click to hear: “Buckets”
Gully plays drunk rock, a style of music popularized in the ’80s and ’90s by The Replacements and Guided By Voices, respectively. It’s lo-fi, bash-and-crash indie rock with big, messy hooks, delivered with a who gives a shit? attitude that only half masks the fact the band really does care about stuff like good music and love.
You can almost smell the spilled PBR and stale cigarette smoke on this EP, particularly in songs like the hangover-damaged acoustic opener, “Andersonville.” The chunky rocker “Buckets” wanders off in the middle section normally reserved for guitar solos. There’s about a minute of distracted strumming while somebody surfs a radio dial in the background, then the song seems to remember where it is and cranks back up into the chorus.
“Salt & Lemon Girl” is a nice surprise: a bawdy barrelhouse number that features guests Peet Chamberlain (Brenda, An Evening With) on piano and Overtone Dave Noyes on trombone. “Loud Mouse” is a feedback-fueled ass-kicking with backing vocals by Candy, lead screamer of the doom-metal band Ocean.
“Rich Kids” has one of my favorite lyrics ever — “some people think that pressure’s a bitch, but pressure can’t hold no gun” — and a great boozy, Stones-y chorus. The last track, “Tundra Heart,” is an organ-soaked experiment that briefly achieves a wobbly liftoff before awkwardly fading out.
Gregory is only Gully’s second release, arriving over two years after the group’s strong debut, the EP Six Songs By Gully. The material here was written between ’07 and early last year, when the lineup included guitarist Greg Bazinet, whose departure inspired the title.
A full-length album of more recent songs by the band’s current incarnation could see daylight by the end of this year, says singer/guitarist Oscar Romero. Don’t hold yer breath, but do pick up Gregory in the meantime, and grab a 30-pack on the way.
— Chris Busby
Gully plays Thurs., May 13, with Foam Castles and Theodore Treehouse, at Geno’s, 625 Congress St., Portland, at 9 p.m. Call 221-2382 for cover (21+).
