Petit Mal review in Little Village

    Hard rock music is an extremely crowded field-nearly as many people want to play it as listen to it.  The grinding roar of Fender guitars through Marshall stacks is well nigh irrestible to white kids growing up in white-bread America.  They're aware of, and might even enjoy, hip hop or European imports like Radiohead, but that music seems to come from somewhere outside of the world they've grown up in.    Growing out your hair so you can headbang over your Stratocaster isn't even much of a rebellion this late in the game, but damn it feels good.

    It's largely a boys game, designed to sublimate testosterone poisoning.  You can try to prove yourself in physical contact, or you can damage peoples hearing and make them like it.  When it's done right, rock music is a an expression of aggression of the elemental urge to rock.  Which makes Petit Mal's Prettier at Night, fronted by songwriter/guitarist Grace Sinclair -formerly of Mr. Blanding's Dreamhouse-an interesting expression of the elemental urge to Rock.

    Petit Mal's rhythym section, Chris Ford (bass), Don Brown (drums), and Jordan Wagener (guitar) are charter members of Iowa City's curiously un-glam Heavy Metal scene, veterans of bands like Breechloader and Burnout.  So there's a lot of straight-ahead drop-D riffing going on here, but it's all in service of the songs, which have enough well crafted musical twists and turns to keep things from getting mechanical.  The engineering and production on this CD done by Bronson Karaff-is first rate, and captures the gigantic guitar sound of Petit Mal's live shows.

    Petit Mal's roaring guitar riffs call to mind Seattle bands like Screaming Trees, Nirvana and Soundgarden, but before the early 90's grunge explosion and backlash.  Petit Mal's sound is more SST than SubPop-indie rock before it was ossified into an empty commercial gesture.  I wish sometimes Sinclair's moody lyrics were a few steps up in the mix.  To say Sinclair brings a woman's perspective to these songs, as when she sings "I'd cradle you if you just be born" in "Safe to Say" is maybe too on the nose, but it is what makes this different from run of the mill whiteboy rawk.  Prettier At Night  manages to be both thoughtful and powerfully physical rock music.

written by Kent Williams for the Little Village October '06