Gallon Drunk - The Rotten Mile

What’s your poison?

Before Acoustic Ladyland were a mere jazz-punk mote in the collective eye of the music-buying public, Gallon Drunk were busy ploughing their own visceral version. With the recent reissues of their early 90s albums, there has been an upsurge of interest in the band, and from the very start of their brand new LP it’s clear that they’re on blasting form. The title track itself melds Stooges-y riffs with Terry Edwards’ insistent sax, feeling like it may at any stage grow wings and fly off, cackling, into a thunderstruck sky. Such drama permeates the album, while the band is good enough to pull off garage rock, faux-surf derangement (Put The Bolt In The Door) and neo-gospel weirdness (Bad Servant), while retaining a sense of a coherent whole. In such a confident mood, it’s hardly a surprise that the brilliantly-delivered cover of Johnny Mandel’s The Shadow Of Your Smile is an exhausting, cracked denouement to an album that has complete control of its energies and moods – and the listener’s, too. This is very, very good.

Fred | FREDCD 5

Reviewed by Joe Shooman
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