Toulouse
foursome Drawers don’t sound French. Not even un peu François. Their
MySpace lists a secondary location of Louisiana, which is no doubt
where their minds are at, and that is the place you’ll most likely be
thinking of when you hear this. These ain’t none of them city slickers,
that’s for sure and that’s just what you’ll gather from these here
songs, and see a photo of the band in all their fake-moustached, straw
hat-wearing, check-shirted glory you’ll see what I mean. There’s
something a bit madcap about them, and this translates into a real
livewire of an E.P. In the sludgy riffs of ‘This Is Oil’ you can
actually feel the exhaustive heat of the Deep South creating a languid
trail of movements. ‘My Ranch’ has a real catchy melody and is backed
by a dirty groove that make [sic] you wanna move. Fans of Down will
surely be down (aww, come on!) with this sh**!
The
vocals are delivered with a huge helping of soul; smooth as that first
Marlboro Red of the day and richer than your city-dwelling uncle.
‘Alone’ throws me with it’s intermittent pig-squeals that actually add
an extra dash of colour to the mix. There is a notable hardcore
influence here and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster is an obvious point
of reference, while on ‘Whisky’ there are some heavy guitars that
remind of Entombed. This, along with ‘My Ranch’ is a favourite and
can’t help but laugh at the repeated cries of ‘give me my fucking
whisky!’ You can just imagine this in a grubby, smoke-filled saloon
with cigar smoking men playing poker and shot glass banged against the
table demanding for a refill from the bar wench. This is music for hard
livin’, hard drinkin’, hard smokin’ dudes…and it rocks!
Luci Herbert