Eric Saeger
Casting Shadows - Black Hollies
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Nu-mod gets a royal nipple-tweaking from the Black Hollies’ meticulous reconstruction of the 60s sound; this stuff is way beyond genre obeisance, bordering on obsession. Given this, it’s not clear where their market is unless your grandparents are smack-dab in it, although of course the anything-goes college-music crowd may have room for them. These guys have the Zombies, for one, down to a science, with itchy-twangy guitars, cheeseball vibrato on the vocal reverb, cymbal work that’s a standalone layer of distortion, the whole smash, and it’s a sure bet that all the equipment used was either original or refurbishments of same. In this it’s damn near a novelty album – the indie-rock instruction manual says you’re supposed to use parts of the sound sparingly, not re-create it nuance for nuance, including the obsolete way of tendering hooks. But they’re bound to be a critics-darling if nothing else – any break from the usual morass of Strokes wannabes, beef-rappers, whiny twee acts, ad nauseum, is a godsend.
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